North Carolina Treasurer Drops SpaceX Investment, Citing Expensive Valuation

TradingKey - SpaceX plans to price on Thursday and list for trading on Friday; this offering, which could become one of the largest IPOs in history, has faced public skepticism from North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner.

Briner stated that with the Elon Musk-led SpaceX valued as high as $1.75 trillion, "upside is already limited," and he would not use pension funds for direct purchases.

Briner reportedly manages approximately $200 billion in assets, covering the retirement funds of the state's teachers, firefighters, and police officers.

Briner said on CNBC: "We have had doubts regarding SpaceX’s pricing for about the last year or so."

He further noted that while Musk is a remarkable entrepreneur and SpaceX's technology is awe-inspiring, at a certain point, an asset becomes fully priced. "We aim for predictable high-single-digit returns for retirees, and we must take valuation into account. A $1.75 trillion valuation for SpaceX is clearly a massive figure."

North Carolina reportedly invested approximately $40 million in OpenAI earlier this year and committed about $250 million to Anthropic. According to Briner, the market value of the Anthropic position has now surpassed $600 million.