Key insights
- The author speculates a connection between Elon Musk's statement about retirement becoming irrelevant due to AI and SpaceX's upcoming IPO. The concern is that SpaceX, despite its potential, is not profitable and its inclusion in passive funds (like 401ks) could negatively impact retirement savings, even if the allocation is small. This raises questions about insulating retirement portfolios from such events.
Just occurred to me- are these two events related? Earlier this year, Elon Musk was reported saying “Don’t worry about squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years,” on the Moonshots with Peter Diamandis podcast in January. “It won’t matter. This was in the context of some ‘AI revolution that would provide basic needs to Americans’. However, it’s coupled with a timely IPO that has a high chance of determining our retirement savings anyways..
Five months after that statement, SpaceX is announced to IPO. Further, Nasdaq and S&P have both loosened rules ahead of this IPO to fast track index inclusions… likely automatically adding this company into our passive fund 401ks. This wouldn’t be an issue if the company wasn’t continually losing money.
Now I know the actual allocation to SpaceX is expected to be a small fraction of your total passive holdings*, but it still would have an effect on people’s retirements.*
Obviously never a good idea to panic shift investments, but is anyone working to insulate themselves from this IPO affecting their passive funds?