Unprecedented! Elon Musk's "trusted" Wall Street trader returns, aiming to trigger the largest IPO in history. Will the "bloodletting effect" of $BTC and $ETH soon unfold?

A senior banker who has worked at Morgan Stanley for nearly thirty years, Michael Grams, announced this week that he is returning to Wall Street. His new title is Chairman of Investment Banking, with the core task of leading SpaceX’s initial public offering. Market analysis indicates this could be the largest IPO in human business history.

Grams briefly left last year to join the U.S. Department of Commerce. Now, at a critical moment as SpaceX’s IPO window opens, he has chosen to return. An internal Morgan Stanley memo confirmed the appointment. The timing is no coincidence; just last week, after SpaceX merged with Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, its valuation soared to $1.25 trillion.

This space exploration company is expected to raise hundreds of billions of dollars through the IPO, funds that will be used for building data centers in space and lunar colonization projects. People close to the deal revealed that if the fundraising reaches $40 billion, more than a dozen participating banks are expected to share approximately $400 million in underwriting fees. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, and Goldman Sachs are seen as lead underwriters, taking the largest shares.

Grams has a deep-rooted relationship with Musk. A SpaceX investor familiar with both described Grams as one of the few bankers tolerated by the notoriously unpredictable entrepreneur. Jared Burchall, Musk’s wealth manager, and Anthony Armstrong, CFO of xAI, both come from Morgan Stanley.

Their collaboration dates back to Tesla’s IPO in 2010 and the high-profile Twitter acquisition in 2022. During the Twitter deal, Musk demanded rapid progress. An insider recalled that Grams asked his team to work in “minutes and hours” to keep pace with Musk.

Public legal documents and text message records show their tacit understanding. In one message, Grams proposed helping Musk secure $5 billion in financing from crypto figure Sam Bankman-Fried, describing him as a “super genius and doer like you.”

Grams is known on Wall Street for his exceptional client service. To win the underwriting role for Facebook’s 2012 IPO, he spent hours playing the platform’s game FarmVille. To secure Uber’s 2018 IPO underwriting, he even worked part-time as an Uber driver.

His departure from investment banking last year to join the Department of Commerce surprised many colleagues. In Washington, he served as head of an investment accelerator, reporting to Commerce Secretary Howard Rattner, and participated in deals including helping the government acquire a 10% stake in Intel.

During his government tenure, the U.S. IPO market was relatively quiet. But this year, the situation is vastly different. Market observers believe 2024 could become one of the most active IPO years in history, with giants like OpenAI and Anthropic considering large-scale listings. Many on Wall Street had speculated whether Grams would be willing to stay in government and miss out on this potential wealth bonanza. Now, the answer is clear.

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