Danish pension fund blacklists SpaceX, criticizing Musk’s “disastrous governance” and its $1.8 trillion overvalued valuation

Danish pension fund AkademikerPension, which manages $25 billion in assets, announced it will blacklist SpaceX, criticizing its $180 billion target valuation as "severely inflated" and directly pointing out that Elon Musk holding roles as CEO, CTO, and Chairman with 80% voting rights constitutes a "catastrophic governance structure."
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• The fund's own estimate caps at only $1 trillion
• One person holds about 80% voting rights, with the three major U.S. pension funds voicing concerns in unison
• Contrast: turning around to embrace OpenAI
• Governance issues unavoidable in mega IPOs

Bloomberg reports that Anders Schelde, Investment Director of Denmark’s pension fund AkademikerPension, explicitly stated in an email that the fund will not invest in SpaceX, citing its "severely inflated" valuation and "disastrous" governance structure.

The fund's own estimate caps at only $1 trillion

We know that SpaceX filed for an IPO on May 20, with a planned roadshow starting next month. However, internal calculations at AkademikerPension indicate that SpaceX’s reasonable valuation "cannot rationally exceed $1 trillion," just over half of the market’s current bid. From an investment return perspective, there is no reason to participate in this IPO.

Schelde bluntly said that investors in this IPO are being asked to accept "unprecedented low risk premiums" for a "highly uncertain company," with the pricing driven more by Musk’s "personal narrative" than by "economic reality," rather than fundamentals.

One person holds about 80% voting rights, with the three major U.S. pension funds voicing concerns in unison

What also causes AkademikerPension to hesitate is governance. Schelde emphasized that even if the valuation were reasonable, the fund would still blacklist SpaceX.

Bloomberg industry analysis of the IPO filings notes that Musk has "near-absolute control" over SpaceX, expected to hold about 80% of voting rights, while simultaneously serving as CEO, CTO, and Chairman, "exposing significant governance concerns."

On May 14 this year, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost, and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli jointly wrote to Musk, expressing serious concern over SpaceX’s "extreme governance structure."

The combined assets managed by these three funds are in the trillions of dollars, making their collective voice far more influential than ordinary shareholder letters.

Contrast: turning around to embrace OpenAI

Interestingly, AkademikerPension’s attitude toward the similarly high-profile OpenAI is completely different. Schelde revealed that this ChatGPT developer recently won a lawsuit Musk brought against it, in which Musk accused OpenAI of shifting to a profit-oriented structure and betraying its original public-interest mission.

Schelde said, "OpenAI is very likely to enter our passive stock portfolio after its IPO, provided it is included in relevant market indices." Whether it will be included in actively managed portfolios depends on its IPO valuation and risk assessment.

Mega IPO governance issues unavoidable

Of course, for SpaceX, this blacklist amount may be insignificant. But the issue it highlights is an unavoidable question in this epic IPO: when a company's valuation heavily depends on the founder’s personal narrative and power is highly concentrated in one person, how should institutional investors price the risk?