As Elon Musk’s SpaceX tries to raise $75 billion in an initial public offering—the plan is to sell 555.6 million shares at $135 per share—investors from the People’s Republic of China will not be welcome (Business Times, June 5, 2026).
Underwriters on SpaceX’s US$75 billion initial public offering have been told not to accept orders from investors in Hong Kong and China, citing US restrictions around the export of critical technology, people with knowledge of the matter said….
The company’s decision to exclude investors from Hong Kong and mainland China was based on guidance related to the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, under which those jurisdictions are subject to distribution restrictions, some of the people said….
The New York-based bank reminded syndicate participants not to market the offering through their wealth management and private banking channels to citizens of ITAR-restricted jurisdictions, and to identify any such investors whose orders entered the institutional book. The restricted jurisdictions also include Lebanon, Russia, Cyprus, and Syria….
SpaceX’s website was inaccessible from Hong Kong and Shanghai on Friday (Jun 5), with attempts to do so resulting in an error message that said the company had banned access from Internet addresses from those locations.
It’s a start. It would be better if company owners knew enough on their own to avoid getting compromisingly involved with countries like mainland China. But if Musk had been inclined to make that judgment independently, his Tesla, Inc. would not be making Teslas in Shanghai. And SpaceX, which has done work for the Pentagon, and other Musk companies would never have accepted money from Chinese investors, as reported by ProPublica and the Financial Times.
At any rate, paying attention to “guidance related to the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations” is better than ignoring U.S. restrictions on trade with the PRC, the standard operating procedure of too many U.S. firms.
Also see:
ProPublica: “Elon Musk’s SpaceX Took Money Directly From Chinese Investors, Company Insider Testifies” (October 2, 2025)
“SpaceX keeps its full ownership structure secret. It was previously reported that some Chinese investors had bought indirect stakes in SpaceX, investing in middleman funds that in turn owned shares in the rocket company. The new testimony describes direct investments that suggest a closer relationship with SpaceX….
“National security law experts said federal officials would likely be deeply interested in understanding the direct Chinese investment in SpaceX. Whether there was cause for concern would depend on the details, they said, but the U.S. government has asserted that China has a systematic strategy of using investments in sensitive industries to conduct espionage.”
Financial Times: “Chinese investors privately take stakes in Elon Musk’s companies” (March 9, 2025)
CNN: “Co-founder of tech company charged with diverting $2.5 billion in Nvidia AI chips to China in violation of export laws” (March 20, 2026)
Justice Department: “Cadence Design Systems Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay Over $140 Million for Unlawfully Exporting Semiconductor Design Tools to a Restricted PRC Military University” (July 28, 2025)
