SpaceX invokes Texas law to deter takeovers before IPO

In a filing with regulators on Thursday, SpaceX said it will rely on Texas law and its charter and bylaws to make tender offers, proxy contests and the removal of officers and directors more difficult as it prepares for an IPO targeted for this summer that the filing estimates could value the company at about $1.75 trillion.

The prospectus warns parts of Texas law, together with the company’s governing documents, could impede “acquisitions of us by means of a tender offer, a proxy contest or otherwise, or removal of our incumbent officers and directors.” The filing adds that the state’s anti-takeover statute is “expected to discourage coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids” and requires potential acquirers to “first negotiate with us.”

The document cites data showing activist investors launched 41 campaigns at U.S. companies in the first quarter of 2026, a 3% increase from a year earlier, with technology and industrial companies the most common targets. The filing states the governance provisions are intended to limit the risk an outside investor could force rapid changes to leadership or strategy after the company goes public.

The prospectus also flags regulatory and legal risks tied to artificial intelligence work associated with xAI. It notes agencies worldwide are “actively investigating and making inquiries relating to social media or the use of AI” in areas including advertising, consumer protection and the distribution of harmful content. The filing says SpaceX faces allegations that its AI products were used to create nonconsensual explicit images and content representing children in sexualized contexts, and warns those inquiries could lead to lawsuits, liability, government action or “loss of access to certain markets, which has occurred in the past.”

SpaceX has been meeting analysts ahead of the offering. In a February social media post, Elon Musk wrote that the company is focused on “building a self-growing city on the Moon” and said that could happen in under 10 years.

At a conference in Singapore, Voyager Technologies chief executive Dylan Taylor predicted, “We’ll have humans on the moon by the end of the 2020s, and we’ll have some lunar base.” Commercial Space Federation president Dave Cavossa described the United States as “by far” the world leader in commercial space.

The filing outlines long-term growth plans including lunar ambitions and lists the corporate protections the company plans to rely on once it becomes publicly traded.