SpaceX at $1.8 Trillion: What Does a Rocket Company Have to Do With Robotics?

So what happens when SpaceX goes public? A few things matter for our world. First, the capital. At $1.8 trillion, even a modest IPO raise gives SpaceX an enormous war chest. Some of that will go to Starship development, sure. But some will almost certainly go toward further automating production. When you're trying to build rockets at scale (and SpaceX's whole thesis depends on volume), you need robots. Lots of them.

Second, the talent. I called my old colleague at Fanuc last week, and he mentioned they've lost three engineers to SpaceX in the past year alone. Public company stock options are a powerful recruiting tool. If SpaceX can offer liquid equity instead of private shares that might never vest at the promised valuation, that changes the calculus for a lot of automation engineers currently sitting at traditional robotics firms.

Third, and this is more speculative, there's the question of what SpaceX does with its manufacturing expertise. Tesla's foray into selling its own automation systems (the so-called Tesla Bot manufacturing cells) hasn't gone anywhere yet. But SpaceX has arguably more sophisticated production capabilities. A public SpaceX with pressure to diversify revenue streams might, and I'm just thinking out loud here, start licensing or selling its manufacturing tech.

Now, should you buy the stock? I have absolutely no idea. That's not my beat either. The Verge comparison to WeWork made me laugh, though. I remember when WeWork filed and everyone in my generation thought, "this is obviously insane." Then the kids bought it anyway. Different era, same energy, maybe.

What I do know is that the robotics and automation embedded in SpaceX's operations represent some of the most advanced manufacturing on the planet. Whether the company is worth $1.8 trillion or $180 billion or somewhere in between, that manufacturing capability is real. And if the IPO brings more attention (and capital) to high-volume automated production, that's probably good for our industry.

Or maybe I'm just looking for excuses to write about rockets. Semi-retirement does strange things to a man.

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