Gwynne Shotwell Discusses SpaceX on CNBC

SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 per share on Friday, a decision President and COO Gwynne Shotwell defended despite signs of much stronger demand from investors. In an exclusive interview, Shotwell told reporters the company deliberately chose not to raise the price even as the offering was roughly five times oversubscribed.

“Not everything has to get done on the first day,” she said.

“I think there’s opportunity as we proceed down the path.”

The IPO pricing left money on the table by some measures. Indications from the market suggested shares could have traded in the $170 to $175 range based on early demand. But she emphasized that SpaceX focused on building a shareholder base of long-term investors rather than maximizing the initial raise.

“The book that we set up that we’ve been working over the last couple weeks is really a great book,” the executive said. “We’re really looking for investors that want to stick with us for the long term.”

For investors tracking the firm’s future, Shotwell pointed to three main areas: progress on the Starship rocket, growth in Starlink consumer and enterprise customers, and its work on AI and coding through the Grok platform.

The interview covered the company’s expanding role in artificial intelligence. She confirmed it plans to launch full AI1 data satellites late next year, but will begin testing compute capabilities on some Starlink satellites sooner. “We love doing kind of canary sets and canary work before we fly the real thing,” she said.

When asked whether investors should view the company as a competitor in the neocloud space, Shotwell didn’t hesitate. “100%. We are builders, we build our own launch vehicles, we build our launch sites, and we’re building data centers both on the ground as well as in orbit, soon. I look at ourselves as an infrastructure company.”

On capital spending, she said, “I think our use of compute is pretty efficient, so I don’t think we’ll have to spend quite as much capex as they are,” the executive said. “I hope not. I hope we don’t have to spend that much money.”

Asked about the biggest risks facing the company, she said she doesn’t see any technology challenge that worries her. But crew launch days remain tense. “I don’t love crew fly days, like those are nerve-wracking,” Shotwell said. “It’s not about the technology. It’s just, you know, you can have a random bad day and you really don’t want them on those days.”

On geopolitical risks, Shotwell acknowledged that Iran has threatened interests tied to Elon Musk in West Asia. “When you’re doing things that are really different and you’re doing things that are trying to change the world, I think some people and some countries get mad,” she said. “But we always try to do the right thing, and we’ll keep forging ahead.”

SpaceX is also a major defense contractor with contracts across launch, the national security-focused Star Shield version of Starlink, and Grok being used on classified networks. The president framed the government work as a patriotic duty. “We’re a company of patriots, and we want to make sure that our government has access to the leading technology and the best.”

On Elon Musk, she pushed back against what she sees as widespread misunderstanding. Shotwell said investors who met Musk during the IPO roadshow left surprised. “I had no idea that is the man. And I said that’s the man I’ve worked for for 24 years. I love him.”

She credited Musk with pushing for retail investors to have access to the IPO. About 33% of the offering went to individual buyers, the executive said, a figure she hopes will encourage other companies to follow suit.

“We’ve had so much demand over the last few years from friends and from family and from Tesla shareholders, Tesla employees wanted to buy SpaceX stock, and they couldn’t do it before today,” Shotwell said.