Goldman Sach CEO Slides Into Musk's DMs During Bid To Lead SpaceX IPO

As Goldman Sachs Group Inc. campaigned to lead SpaceX's IPO, Chief Executive Officer David Solomon opened up a new channel to the rocket company's billionaire owner, sliding into Elon Musk's DMs.

With banks jockeying to get their name first on the deal, Solomon worked with staffers to message Musk directly on X, his social media platform, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified, citing private details.

Solomon's move helped highlight the bank's commitments to Musk and the mercurial billionaire's various businesses, which also include xAI. The move shows how investment banks seek to pull out all the stops to win a client's favour.

Banks have been battling for months to take the top spot on the initial public offering for SpaceX, which is targeting a valuation of more than $2 trillion while raising $75 billion, Bloomberg previously reported. At that size, it would easily eclipse the previous record amount raised in an initial public offering. It also promises to be the first among a set of highly anticipated IPOs this year that could usher in a windfall for banks. 

Morgan Stanley was long seen as the banker to Musk after sticking by him for years and keeping faith in his high-risk bid to acquire Twitter, now known as X. To see Goldman Sachs listed ahead of its rival on the IPO filing has been a source of chest-thumping at Goldman.

The bank has had a yearslong relationship with SpaceX. The IPO work is being led by some of Goldman's most senior bankers, including Dan Dees, Kim Posnett and David Ludwig. A key figure in the operation was also Susie Scher, a long-time Goldman investment banker, who is now a senior adviser to the firm.

In a term sheet, Morgan Stanley said the two banks are co-leads, noting that their listing is in alphabetical order, according to people who have seen it.

The SpaceX listing is expected to generate fees for the banks on the deal far in excess of a normal listing. Snagging the coveted lead-left position allows banks to score points with future clients and claim bragging rights with investors.

Solomon is known for using gimmicks to help win a deal, with one instance becoming investment-banking lore at Goldman. The CEO, who was banking head at the time, showed up with a team decked out in Lululemon gear to clinch the mandate for the activewear retailer's 2007 IPO.

For years, Morgan Stanley had cultivated a relationship with Musk. Last year, Musk named a former Morgan Stanley banker to be the chief financial officer at xAI. Jared Birchall, a former Morgan Stanley executive, has been a long-time right-hand man for the entrepreneur, managing his fortune.

But it was another top Morgan Stanley banker, Michael Grimes, who has been key to the relationship, helping drive the bank's work on Musk's purchase of Twitter in 2022. 

It wasn't an easy deal. Morgan Stanley risked massive losses after it was left holding billions of dollars that it had committed to finance the transaction. Investors balked at taking on the risk, leaving the debt stuck on bank balance sheets. 

Eventually, the group led by Morgan Stanley was able to offload the risk, as fears about the situation eased in part by President Donald Trump's return to office last year and Musk's prominent role in Washington.

Grimes eventually followed Musk to Washington to work for the Trump administration. Then, earlier this year, Grimes returned to Morgan Stanley, a move that caused alarm at Goldman.

Funding Secured

Musk and Goldman, on the other hand, have had a chequered relationship.

Back in 2018, after Musk's now infamous "funding secured" tweet to take Tesla Inc. private, the billionaire claimed that he was working with Goldman as his financial adviser on the deal. That move sparked confusion at Goldman, which had not been formally tapped in any such capacity. The bank later agreed to advise Musk.

Goldman senior bankers subsequently met Musk at his residence to list out ways they could line up funding for his grand plan.

Then, when Musk moved to buy Twitter, he had Morgan Stanley by his side. Goldman, notably, lined up to help Twitter defend against the hostile takeover.

SpaceX Growth

In recent years, SpaceX has grown into one of the most influential companies in the space industry with billions of dollars in government contracts and considerable political sway. Musk was one of the executives who travelled with Trump to China last week to join talks with Xi Jinping.

Solomon has had a dormant presence on the social-media platform for more than a decade. In his early years as CEO, he shared a mix of official updates and musical snippets on Meta Platforms Inc.'s Instagram. In 2022, he abandoned those music-related posts.

As he explained on a recent podcast, he wasn't averse to touting his pursuits on social media: "It's not me telling my team I don't want to talk about this, it's for some reason, people on my team thinking that we shouldn't talk about this."

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)