MORGAN BRENNAN: I'm here at the NASDAQ. I'm with Gwynne Shotwell. Historic day, historic IPO, and just really incredible to be here with you. Final IPO pricing, $135 per share, the offering size kept the same. Why do that when there's so much demand out there? According to my colleague Leslie Picker, five times the final book, five times oversubscribed. GWYNNE SHOTWELL: Well, you know, not everything has to get done on the first day, right? I think there's lots – I think there's opportunity as we proceed down the path. BRENNAN: Okay, so you don't feel like you've left capital on the table when you see indications of $170 to $175 a share? SHOTWELL: You know, the book that we set up that we've been working over the last couple weeks is really a great book. We're really looking for investors that want to stick with us for the long term, and I feel really proud about what we've done. BRENNAN: Yeah, I mean, as we mentioned, it's a – this is a history-making offering and a major milestone. There's been some debate about stock valuation, even as I think the first, most of the first Wall Street initiations have been very bullish. What do you see as the key metrics that investors need to track as you and Elon and the SpaceX team realize this future? SHOTWELL: So, definitely folks should be watching how we're doing on Starship. They should watch consumer growth – consumer and enterprise growth on Starlink and Starlink mobile. And then, of course, we've got the Grok, we've got AI, we've got coding. There's a lot. There's actually a lot going on. BRENNAN: I know anyone I've been – have been talking about it before. And so, just, I guess, just to keep going with the conversation we had last week, Elon unveiling the AI1 data satellite this week, also getting some reports that SpaceX could begin testing orbital data compute as soon as next year. Is that true? SHOTWELL: I think we'll be launching the full AI1 satellites late next year, but we will be putting compute on some of the Starlink broadband and the Starlink mobile satellites prior. Want to make sure we understand the operation. We love doing kind of canary sets and canary work before we fly the real thing. BRENNAN: Yeah, I know. We've talked about that as well, and sort of this iterative design process, and this idea of flying and flying and testing and testing. Since you and I last spoke, as well, you inked another compute deal, Google, that's on top of the one you did with Anthropic, too. Should investors see SpaceX as an emerging competitor in this neocloud environment when it comes to the terrestrial AI data center compute build out that we're seeing from others? SHOTWELL: 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. So I look at ourselves as an infrastructure company. BRENNAN: You and I have talked about it, capital intensive, and you've done these types of investment cycles before. You're also competing with OpenAI and Anthropic. When we talk about something like Grok, the hyperscalers, are you going to need to spend as much as those peers, when you think about this over the longer term? SHOTWELL: 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, and we also demand that our coders are quite efficient in their code as well. So I – let's put this way, I hope not. I hope we don't have to spend that much money. BRENNAN: Well, and I think maybe perhaps some of – one of the things that gets missed at times in the conversation is that you're talking about some of these other companies, very software specific engineers and folks at the helm, but you guys also have all the hardware expertise and manufacturing expertise too. SHOTWELL: I think it's incredibly important, and in fact, we've brought some of that hardware focus, those hardware focused folks, and we've brought them over to xAI, and they've thrived there, actually. And there – it's a new thing for them to work on and to learn, building launch sites, building rockets, building AI compute, building AI models. BRENNAN: Let's also talk a little bit about space. Space is hard. It can be risky. Case in point, unfortunately, what we saw with Blue Origin's new Glenn Rocket on the launch pad a couple of weeks ago. What do you see as the biggest risks for the company, both short term and long term? SHOTWELL: That's a great question. There's not – I don't think there's anything sitting in front of us that I'm super worried about. I'm not – I don't see any technology or any endeavor that we're looking at doing that I'm afraid we can't do. I don't – I don't love crew fly days, like those are nerve-wracking. I worry about those, but 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. BRENNAN: Yeah, and I've heard you have a routine for those launch days to do. SHOTWELL: I do. Yes. BRENNAN: What is it going to take to ultimately realize and build out this $28.5 trillion TAM that has been identified in your prospectus? SHOTWELL: So, I think if you think about just people using AI, it's hard to get to those numbers, But if you think about digital humans, you think about humanoid robots, you think about all cars on the planet eventually being full self-drive, they all need AI compute and comms, by the way, so all this need for compute on the ground, kind of distributed across the globe, they all need to kind of reach back home. So I'm very excited about the – really the combination of that, plus the need for them to all kind of phone home, because they'll be using Starlink for that. BRENNAN: I want to go back to this idea of risks. Yesterday, Iran state media reporting that Iran is targeting "all interests related to economic holdings managed by Elon Musk in West Asia." Realize, even just in the last few moments, we've got more reporting on this, that we could get a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran as soon as this weekend. But what do threats like this mean for SpaceX? SHOTWELL: You know, we – we've had threats, you know, at all levels, and I think we – 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. You know, but we always try to do the right thing, and we'll keep forging ahead. BRENNAN: Well, and SpaceX is a big and growing defense contractor as well. You've got contracts across all the segments, whether it's Launch or whether it's Star Shield, which is a national security enabled Starlink, or Grok being used on classified networks now. So, how do you think about balancing that government business against the commercial ones? SHOTWELL: We're always going to support our government. Like we're a company of patriots, and we want to make sure that our government has access to the leading technology and the best. The best stuff. And I think we provide the best stuff. BRENNAN: And finally, well, and I hear about this a lot from military experts in terms of what it's doing in the war fighting domains, but finally, I just, I want to go back to something you and I have talked about before, and that is founder, CEO, CTO, Chairman of the Board, Elon Musk. What is something that is maybe misunderstood or lesser known about him, that investors, Wall Street, now Main Street, should know? SHOTWELL: I think he's very misunderstood across the board. I want people to know him. In fact, he participated in some of the discussions that we had – we have had over the last couple of weeks with investors. And the investors left saying, I had no idea that that is the man. And I said that's the man I've worked for for 24 years. I love him. I think his focus on retail, by the way, is kind of – I think that embodies a lot of what he's trying to do. He's trying to make space open for everybody. He wanted this IPO, he wanted regular people to be able to buy the stock, and a lot of folks participated in the retail level. Not even traditional retail, but by the way, if you look at all the individuals that were able to buy outside of the institution, it's like 33% of the round. BRENNAN: It's pretty incredible, the retail investor playbook, and what this milestone means for that, as well. SHOTWELL: I hope it kind of shifts more companies to allow everyday people to buy stock. By the way, I'm not saying I don't love our institutional investors, they were incredibly supportive. They've been incredibly supportive, and they continue to be. But 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. BRENNAN: Well, and even just to give a little bit color to the viewers, I mean, outside of here for bell ringing, the amount of people that were standing here taking pictures and cheering it on. SHOTWELL: Did you see all the kids? BRENNAN: I did. SHOTWELL: There were so many kids out there. Like – fantastic. BRENNAN: Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX. SHOTWELL: Thanks, Morgan. BRENNAN: Great to speak with you today on this milestone day for SpaceX and for the broader market. SHOTWELL: Thank you. Nice to see you.

Source: CNBC

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