Why some Australian investors will risk punting on Musk’s $2.5 trillion space vision

Yee-haw! Elon Musk is offering Australian investors their own special opportunity to buy a small piece of his wild space dream – the listing of his $US1.77 trillion ($2.5 trillion), YES TRILLION, SpaceX.

This is one for the adrenaline junkies. It’s a ride without a harness, airbags or safety nets, and few road rules.

The Australian corporate regulator has even required some modifications in a special Australian addendum to the SpaceX prospectus – so that Australian investors get an extra layer of warnings about how they could potentially lose their money in the SpaceX float, which is scheduled for this week.

As leading Australian retail broker, Commonwealth Bank has even come to the party, enabling those with CommSec accounts to take part in the raising or trade shares once listed.

So it is off to the races for the Musk believers, who appreciate that no matter how many times his big promises have not been met, some of them have.

Over the past few decades Musk has made many of his believers extremely wealthy. Anyone who bought Tesla shares six years ago when they were less than $US50 has felt the financial joy (despite being a highly volatile share, it last traded close to $US400).

The New York Times even tallied how many goals Musk had outlined over more than a decade and how many had been achieved: 19 per cent achieved over 600 claims, the publication reckons.

This opportunity to take a punt on Musk’s SpaceX comes at the same time as the federal government is pushing through changes to the tax regime that distort investment decisions away from investing in shares, particularly risky ones.

To be fair, Australian investors who buy into Musk’s SpaceX float probably won’t be looking that hard at tax treatment of capital profits and losses. Rather, they will be punting on whether Musk really can colonise Mars, create a humanoid with enough dexterity to thread a needle, or flood the streets with self-driving Teslas.

If you are sufficiently convinced by Musk’s sales spiel that you are prepared to overlook numerous previous instances of his failed goals, then you probably won’t be too bothered by the overarching warning in capitals contained in the Australian prospectus.

“AN INVESTMENT IN SPACEX IS HIGHLY SPECULATIVE AND YOU MAY LOSE SOME OR ALL OF THE VALUE OF YOUR INVESTMENT,” is the Australian document’s opening statement.

(This reads more like the voiceover contained in ads warning about the probability of losing when betting on sports games.)

And then there is this governance warning, which at its heart says Musk’s role is an omnipotent force.