Musk bought $1.4 billion SpaceX shares last year, The Information reports

April 21 (Reuters) – Elon Musk increased his stake in SpaceX last year by purchasing $1.4 billion worth of stock from current and former employees, The Information reported on Tuesday. 

The secondary stock purchase, made through Musk’s trust, was disclosed in a draft of SpaceX’s confidential IPO prospectus, the report said.  

SpaceX also approved a plan last month that would award the billionaire CEO 60 million additional shares if the company’s market capitalization climbs from $1.1 trillion to as high as $6.6 trillion and the firm completes an ambitious plan of building data centers in space to supply compute for AI developers, The Information said. 

The stock would vest as SpaceX increases its market cap in $500 billion increments, according to the Information. 

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The company, which confidentially filed for a U.S. listing in March, generated about $8 billion in profit last year on revenue of $15 billion to $16 billion, Reuters reported in January.

SpaceX plans to use a dual-class equity structure that gives Class B shareholders 10 votes each, Reuters reported on Tuesday, concentrating power with Musk and a handful of other insiders, while Class A shares sold to public investors will carry one vote each.

(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)