Largest IPO ever: How an Elon Musk ‘ambush’ paved the way for SpaceX’s trillion-dollar debut

While SpaceX has set the price for the world’s largest IPO ever, a lesser-known story about Musk’s rocket-maker has resurfaced, reminding us that it all began with a “joke” and an “ambush.” Years before Elon embraced the billionaire lifestyle, his college roommate, Adeo Ressi, now a serial entrepreneur and investor, staged an intervention to stop the tech mogul from starting SpaceX.

Musk started his company, which has since become a space giant, in 2002 with the goal of cutting down space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars. Ressi was equally passionate about the latter ambition.

With just days left before the SpaceX IPO, the world’s richest person’s old friend, who attended the University of Pennsylvania with him in the early 1990s, has now come out and said that he “organised an intervention” for Musk at a hotel 25 years ago. Despite his attempts to sway Elon, the present-day SpaceX CEO remained undeterred and committed, and the rest is history.

Here’s how the story goes.

Elon Musk’s roommate staged an ‘ intervention’ to stop him from starting SpaceX

Turning back time 25 years, Adeo Ressi recounted on X, “Elon and I sat in a car on a dark stretch of Long Island highway, two neurodiverse geeks staring at the night sky and wondering what came next. We had both experienced substantial exits and felt the weight of possibility ahead of us.”

As they gazed upward, Ressi claims to have “joked about space,” unbeknownst to the fact that they were “planting the seed for what would become the largest IPO in history.”

In today’s world, Adeo Ressi is co-founder and Chairman of the Founder Institute and CEO of the full-stack venture capital platform Decile Group. Back then, he spent hours debating with Musk why “space was so hard.”

“In the end, rockets are fuel and metal. We also debated where to go, and it was crystal clear that Mars was the only real destination,” he added in his X post on Saturday.

Once the two returned to New York City, they embarked on a global tour of space and arranged a series of meetings with space agencies and luminaries worldwide. The process opened their eyes to an “industry stuck in bureaucratic thinking,” making them realise that if they continued at that pace, their dream of exploring space would never become a reality.

I organized an intervention to stop Elon from starting SpaceX. Here is the story…

Twenty five years ago, Elon and I sat in a car on a dark stretch of Long Island highway, two neurodiverse geeks staring at the night sky and wondering what came next. We had both experienced… pic.twitter.com/5tp7j1wW0Q

— Adeo Ressi (@adeoressi) June 6, 2026

Ultimately, they took matters into their own hands. Owing to their deep interest in private space exploration, their collaboration finally gave birth to the Life to Mars project, which aimed to inspire humanity to colonise Mars, as is also detailed on the Ressi’s Founder Institute website.

“We launched Life to Mars to show the world that two ambitious young men (29 and 30 years old), could send life to Mars without any government backing or support. We planned to send and grow plants on Mars, though some were pushing us to send mice,” Ressi continued.

“We had a $50 MM budget that rested on our purchase of two Russian ICBMs for $7 MM each. We assumed one ICBM would fail, and we would learn and fix everything before launching again. When Elon went back to actually buy the ICBMs, the Russians tripled the price, bringing out launch costs from a total of $14 MM to $42 MM.”

Once they were hit with the harsh truth that their ambition, the ‘Life to Mars’ plan, was no longer viable, a dismayed Elon decided to aim even higher by starting SpaceX and creating his own Mars rockets. Ressi, on the other hand, “organised a large panel of top space experts” and “ambushed him at the Georgian Hotel one morning.” Musk’s college mate said, “It was set up like an intervention for an alcoholic, but for space.”

Regardless of how hard he tried, the intervention failed, as a committed Elon looked Adeo Ressi in the eye and said, “I am going to do this.”

Sharing the major throwback, Ressi congratulated his longtime mate on what’s to come, adding, “I am excited to see this IPO after 25 years of hard work. What SpaceX has done is a testament to human will and overcoming insurmountable obstacles. It’s nothing short of amazing.”

Although the account remains a lesser-known anecdote, it isn’t the first time it has surfaced publicly. Back in 2023, journalist Walter Isaacson published a biography of the SpaceX and Tesla boss, “Elon Musk,” in which he shared the same details of a planned “ambush.”

“When Musk decided he wanted to start his own rocket company, his friends did what true friends do in such a situation: they staged an intervention,” Isaacson wrote in the book. It further shed light on how Ressi “corralled friends to fly to Los Angeles, where they gathered with Musk to talk him out of it.”

Released in September 2023, the biography disclosed that Musk’s former housemate at the University of Pennsylvania put together a highlight reel showing videos of rockets blowing up, warning the billionaire that he would lose all his money.

Irrespective of what Ressi did, it’s safe to say that his actions from 25 years ago were well-intentioned, stemming from big concerns for his friend. After all, the UPenn duo ran a nightclub out of their college frat house to make money for rent.

Elon Musk’s Mission: Mars is well alive

Musk hasn’t stopped after founding his rocket company. The plan appears to be moving forward full throttle, especially with 85.1% of the voting power in Musk’s hands.

Although his Mars plans have met with multiple snags and been postponed amid shifting priorities, he still very much aims to build a self-sustaining colony on the red planet. Even his pay package is contingent on the plan’s successful accomplishment, according to an SEC filing unveiled in May, putting the goal at the centre of SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO.

Back in January, the company board granted the CEO 1 billion performance-based restricted Class B shares split into 15 equal tranches. However, to cash in the award in full, SpaceX will have to achieve a market capitalisation of $7.5 trillion and set up a “permanent human colony” on Mars with at least 1 million inhabitants.

Explaining the rationale behind the Mars missions, SpaceX’s May 2026 filing stated, “By moving beyond the only home we have ever known, we ensure species-level redundancy and that the light of consciousness will not be tied to a single planet subject to the inevitable hazards of a harsh and vast universe.

“We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs… We believe the next paradigm shift for humanity is the creation of a resilient, perpetually expanding spacefaring civilisation that drives continuous innovation across new frontiers.”