Staff Reports
SpaceX’s market debut was the news. The company raised roughly $75 billion in the largest U.S. IPO by proceeds, and the share price pushed Elon Musk’s paper fortune past the trillion‑dollar mark. That real, record‑setting event has people talking about where the money lives — and who chased it out of California.
SpaceX IPO: Historic payday, huge stakes
The numbers are simple and enormous. SpaceX sold a big block of shares at about $135 a share and hauled in roughly $75 billion. The market put the company’s value into the trillions, and Wall Street trackers reported Musk as the first person to cross a trillion on paper. That’s not debate — it’s the central, verifiable news peg here. This IPO rewrites headlines and tax math, whether Sacramento likes it or not.
The three‑word jab that didn’t help
Back in 2020, then‑Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez posted a three‑word tweet — “F*ck Elon Musk” — in the middle of the lockdown fights. Musk answered with two words: “Message received.” People laughed, then businesses moved. Tesla moved its headquarters to Texas. SpaceX shifted its main corporate footprint too. Gonzalez is now president of the California Federation of Labor, so she’s still in the headlines — and her old tweet still gets airtime when Californians wonder why money and talent are leaving.
Did that tweet “cost” California $100 billion? The math is murky
Opinion writers have slapped a $100 billion price tag on that tweet. That’s a catchy number, but it’s not a hard, audited fact. Tax experts point out many moving parts: who sells stock, when the shares are unlocked, where employees live, and how taxes get apportioned. Corporate moves have many causes — taxes, rules, permits, and plain business sense. Still, whether the loss is $100 billion or $10 billion, the trend is obvious: California’s policies and tone drove capital outward. You can call it symbolic, but symbols affect decisions.
California’s choice: punish wealth or make it stay
Here’s the blunt truth: states that chase away job creators with hostility and heavy taxes end up with empty promises about “sharing the wealth.” Meanwhile, proposals like a 5 percent “billionaires tax” expose the political mood in Sacramento. If leaders want revenue, they can either nurture growth or harvest the few who remain foolish enough to stick around. The SpaceX IPO shows what the market rewards. California can keep punishing success with snark and taxes — or it can try to keep the innovators it needs. History and the markets have already voted.
