SpaceX set for record Wall Street listing with no succession plan

SpaceX is expected to list on Wall Street on Friday, raising about $75 billion at a valuation near $1.8 trillion under the ticker SPCX, in what the company is preparing as the largest initial public offering in history. Elon Musk will continue to serve as chief executive, chief technology officer and chairman, controlling more than 82% of voting shares. SpaceX's IPO filings contain no designated successor, deputy or key-person life insurance arrangement. Quinn Slobodian, a professor of international history at Boston University, said Musk has built the structure deliberately, describing himself as an irreplaceable "dreamer and chief engineer" of the project. Slobodian told AFP that Musk is following the "prophet-founder" model used by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and that Musk's decision to give his biographer Walter Isaacson access to his life fits that strategy. Slobodian added that the entire IPO process is being run in a way that depends on a single individual. No further details on the listing were immediately available.