About 2 years ago, Musk was up against a hard deadline to repay the original Twitter investors. The amount due was $25 billion, previously costing him $125M/month in debt financing (interest $1.5 billion year).
When Musk hit the deadline, he repaid the Twitter investor debt by issuing shares in his newest company, xAI. The original Twitter investors then held $25 billion equivalencies’ in xAI stock.
Fast forward two years. After completing the SpaceX IPO, Musk – with $100 billion cash on hand – creates $25 billion in non-secured bonds. “The senior unsecured notes will be issued across 5-year, 7-year, 10-year, 20-year, 30-year tenors. Proceeds will be used to repay borrowings under its bridge loan facility.” {LINK}
Elon Musk is issuing the SpaceX $25 billion bond to cover the repayment of the $25 billion loan for the Twitter purchase, which is currently $25 billion debt carried within xAI shares.
Bottom line: Musk never actually paid the original Twitter investors; he was still carrying the obligation. Transferring the debt to bonds makes the repayment terms longer.
xAI is the revenue/profit side of his operation.
Be careful about SpaceX.
Musk can pump and dump SpaceX valuation using the X platform and algorithms under his absolute control. I strongly suspect SpaceX (a loss leader) is not going to pan out unless it continues to be pumped by retail.
Under the current financial construct, retail investors are left holding the bag (SpaceX – No profit) with Musk extracting the actual money (xAI – generating revenue/profit).
Retail investors could be stuck holding the bag. My prediction is 5 months. Watch what happens after the early investor lockup ends.
SpaceX IPO lockup: (1) 20% of holdings unlock on the second full trading day after Q2 2026 earnings (expected late July/early August 2026). (2) Bonus 10% unlocks if the stock trades ≥30% above $135 for at least 5 of the 10 trading days before that earnings date.
I’m not confident this SpaceX investment vehicle is stable.
The bond sale indicates to me that Musk isn’t sure either.
Just a note.
https://www.ainvest.com/news/spacex-bond-sale-20b-debt-offering-matters-investors-2606/
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/22/spacex-spcx-bond-sale-ipo.html
