‘Big Short’ Investor Says He’s Not a Fan of Upcoming SpaceX IPO After Previously Taking Aim at Tesla

Steve Eisman, the investor who became famous for his prescient bet against subprime mortgages ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, says he wants no part of the upcoming SpaceX IPO — and the company’s own prospectus is his primary exhibit.

Eisman, host of “The Real Eisman Playbook” podcast and former Neuberger Berman senior portfolio manager, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday that he is simply “not a fan” of the offering, which is expected to price as soon as Friday.

According to Eisman:

“Let’s see. If you read the prospectus, I mean, there’s some amusing stuff in the prospectus. Like my favorite part of the prospectus is that one of the things that SpaceX wants to do is asteroid mining. I thought that was kind of funny.”

His more substantive concern is the company’s pivot into AI. Eisman noted that capex as a share of revenue jumped from 42% in fiscal year 2023 to 215% in the most recent first quarter, driven by AI infrastructure spending. He called Grok, SpaceX’s AI product, “not a world class AI company” and warned that AI output broadly is “very commoditized” with “no moats.”

Eisman pointed to the SpaceX S-1’s total addressable market figure of $28.5 trillion, with 85% attributed to AI, noting that “the entire company is being bet on AI in terms of its future, not on SpaceX and not on Starlink.”

According to Eisman:

“What I love about the S-1 is that it reads like a science fiction novel. It really does.”

He clarified he has no interest in shorting the stock. “I have no interest in shorting this. I’m just not playing,” he said.

Eisman previously bet against Tesla before abandoning the short position in 2020. “If you are short, you’ve got to walk away. There’s no glory in losing money,” he said at the time.

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