JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon plans to discuss the upcoming SpaceX initial public offering with thousands of the bank’s high-net-worth clients this week, part of an unprecedented nationwide push in coordination with the rocket maker’s leaders.
Dimon will host a “live interactive discussion” Thursday from JPMorgan’s headquarters, according to invitations seen by Bloomberg. He will be joined by Mary Callahan Erdoes, the CEO of the bank’s asset and wealth management division, and a pair of SpaceX executives: President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen.
The event will be simulcast to about 90 JPMorgan locations across 26 states, according to a person familiar with the matter. More than 2,500 of the bank’s clients are expected to attend, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing the private details.
While it’s not uncommon for banks to host roadshow events for investors ahead of an IPO, the extraordinary scope of JPMorgan’s push underscores the massive demand for what is likely to be the biggest ever market debut. The appeal to retail investors, in particular, reflects the importance of that cohort to Elon Musk’s business empire.
The billionaire’s rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is targeting a valuation of about $1.8 trillion when it goes public later this month, Bloomberg has reported. The hype around SpaceX has helped drive a resurgence in IPO activity, with OpenAI and Anthropic also preparing to go public.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was selected last month as the lead bank for the SpaceX listing alongside Morgan Stanley, long seen as the banker to Musk. JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are also among the 23 banks working on the listing.
JPMorgan’s involvement is notable in light of the bank’s tumultuous history with Musk, SpaceX’s CEO. The firm sued Musk’s electric-car maker Tesla Inc. in 2021 over a series of stock-warrant transactions affected by the billionaire’s short-lived attempt to take the EV manufacturer private.
While Tesla countersued soon thereafter, the two sides agreed to drop the litigation in November 2024. Dimon joked months later that he had “hugged it out” with Musk, and vowed to be helpful to him and his companies going forward.
