After a brief pop its blockbuster IPO earlier this month, shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX are starting to drop out of the sky: shares have plummeted back down to around $167 by Monday morning, wiping out all their gains from last week.
The initial warning signs were certainly there. As the Financial Times revealed over the weekend, SpaceX received a brutal report card one day ahead of its IPO from global index provider MSCI. The firm issues Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, an index that stakeholders use to evaluate risks and exposure to controversies.
SpaceX scored the lowest possible ESG score, putting it on the same level as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin in the wake of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, per the FT.
The rocket company’s bruising environmental grade angered Musk, who dismissed the warning.
“Unfortunately, electric rockets are impossible,” the CEO tweeted in response to the news.
His comments highlight just how damaging his efforts to bring us closer to space have become for the environment, concerns he’s known to outright ignore even after years of championing the electrification of cars and solar power.
Beyond its rockets burning monstrous amounts of fuel and belching out massive plumes of polluting gases straight into the stratosphere, SpaceX has also been found violating environmental rules by dumping toxic wastewater and harming delicate ecosystems and wildlife.
Beyond its environmental score, SpaceX didn’t fare much better in the other two ESG categories. SpaceX did especially badly in the “controversy” department, scoring a one out of ten. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given its mercurial CEO, who has long been embroiled in drama, from benefiting from rampant corruption, making flagrantly racist remarks as recently as last week, making empty promises to investors, not to mention his extensive relationship with deceased sex criminal and billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In terms of governance — SpaceX scored a 3.2 out of ten — analysts have warned that Musk has given himself a stunning 80 percent of the voting power, giving him the power to determine where the company is headed and its overall strategy.
“A poor controversies assessment, a very poor governance assessment and a low overall ESG rating should not surprise anyone,” Edhec business school program director Frédéric Ducoulombier told the FT. “This is very close to a governance horror story for public-market investors.”
Musk, who has a long track record of bristling against being held accountable, already has a strained relationship with ESG ratings. In 2022, his carmaker Tesla was dropped from the widely-followed S&P 500 ESG Index over concerns of racial discrimination, poor working conditions — and, ironically, a “lack of a low-carbon strategy.”
At the time, the now-trillionaire erupted in fury, arguing the S&P 500 had “lost their integrity.”
“I am increasingly convinced that corporate ESG is the Devil Incarnate,” he added.
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