First known congressional SpaceX stock buys surface after IPO
Two members of Congress — Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa. and Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif. – they declared that they or their family members purchased it SpaceX stock within days of the company’s historic initial public offering, according to publicly available House financial documents.
Meuser recently explained: dependent child made a purchase on June 15 He has between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in the company. This was the first time in several years that Meuser or a family member had purchased shares in an individual company, according to financial disclosures.
cisneros Announced the acquisition on June 18 SpaceX’s shares are between $1,001 and $15,000.
Elon Musk’s aviation and satellite company, SpaceX, went public on June 12 with a market value of over $2 trillion.
A spokesman for Meuser did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
In a statement, Cisneros told CNBC that he does not personally manage his portfolio.
“My wife and I have always employed outside financial advisors with fiduciary responsibility to maintain a diverse portfolio. We do not manage the day-to-day trading of our investment portfolio and have never proposed a trade while serving in Congress or the Department of Defense,” said Cisneros, who was tapped by President Joe Biden to serve as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness in 2021.
Cisneros’ statement continued: “Additionally, while serving in both the executive and legislative branches of government, I have always complied with all rules and regulations regarding stock trading and financial disclosure. I will also continue to advocate for greater ethical oversight of federally elected and politically appointed officials regarding their financial portfolios.”
Members of Congress and their immediate family members are allowed to own and trade individual stocks as long as they comply with disclosure rules and do not use confidential information obtained through their official positions. There is no evidence that Meuser or Cisneros acted on non-public information or violated any laws.
The STOCK Act requires legislators to disclose transactions made by themselves, their spouses and dependent children.
Still, members’ duties on the committee make tradesmen politically sensitive. Meuser is sitting House Financial Services CommitteeCisneros, which has jurisdiction over securities and stock exchanges, House Armed Services CommitteeHe oversees the Department of Defense, a major customer of SpaceX.
Ethics watchdogs previously told CNBC that the filings are just the tip of the iceberg that will likely emerge in financial disclosures in the coming weeks. Many people expect congressmen on both sides of the aisle to have passed SpaceX’s IPO.
SpaceX went public in June and raised nearly $75 billion in the largest IPO in history. Shares opened at $150 and quickly increased the company’s market value to over $2 trillion, turning the listing into a test for public demand around Musk and artificial intelligence.
Musk and his companies have become increasingly important players in Republican politics and federal contracting.
The IPO was the first step in what could become a massive wave of IPOs by private technology companies, some of which are at the forefront of policy debates in Washington; DC AI juggernaut Anthropic has secretly filed for a US IPO, with rival OpenAI soon following, aiming for a valuation that could reach $1 trillion.
SpaceX shares closed at $162 on Thursday, up about 8% from their opening price of $150, but were about 20% below their June 16 closing peak of $201.80.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNBC previously reported that one of the House GOP’s top leaders, R-Mich. The agent found that Lisa McClain had a family investment that would benefit from SpaceX going public after her husband bought xAI for up to $250,000 before Musk folded the artificial intelligence company into SpaceX.
There is no evidence that McClain knew of subsequent government actions involving xAI or trading in non-public information.
“Chairman McClain’s investments are a matter of public record,” Joe Buccino, communications director for the House Republican Conference, told CNBC in June. “They were done in accordance with all acts of the House and applicable laws.”
CNBC did not identify any other members of Congress with relatively clear direct stakes in SpaceX or expected tech IPOs from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic; but private company assets can be difficult to track down.
Efforts to ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks have floated for years but have failed repeatedly.
House Republican leaders vowed late last year to introduce a bill that would ban members from doing business while in office. A similar Senate proposal passed out of committee in July 2025. Neither house took any further action on the congressional trade ban.
