SpaceX Adds Roelof Botha to Board Days After IPO

SpaceX has added Roelof Botha as an independent director and audit committee member, less than a week after the company completed a record IPO.

Botha joins as the eighth board member. The appointment, disclosed in a Wednesday filing, takes effect immediately and lasts until the next annual shareholder meeting, according to TechCrunch. Elon Musk serves as chairman, CEO and technology chief at the rocket maker, which now carries a market capitalization of $2.5 trillion following last week's IPO.

Botha worked with Musk at PayPal after Musk recruited him in 2000 during the dot-com era. The two share South African roots. Botha has been at Sequoia since 2003, rising to managing director in 2022 before stepping down from that role last year; he remains an adviser focused on seed, early-stage and growth investments.

Sequoia is a major SpaceX investor. The firm first backed SpaceX in 2019 and participated in subsequent rounds, building a stake valued in the billions of dollars. Sequoia has also invested in Musk's Neuralink, The Boring Company and the leveraged buyout of Twitter, now known as X. Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire serves as the firm's principal lead investor in SpaceX.

Maguire told CNBC on Friday, just before SpaceX's Nasdaq debut, that the firm would distribute some shares to investors "if we feel like the valuation is way ahead of its skis." He added that "as an individual, I'm going to hold my shares forever." The Wednesday filing does not state whether Botha is representing Sequoia on the board.

Botha's Sequoia tenure ended amid controversy. Fortune reports he stepped down roughly seven months ago after a period that coincided with challenges for the venture industry. The Financial Times previously reported that colleagues criticized his management style and that he faced investor pushback for defending remarks by Maguire that were widely criticized as Islamophobic. Bloomberg confirms the timing of the board addition relative to the IPO.

The filing notes that Botha is related to a SpaceX employee but does not name the person. Musk controls more than 82 percent of voting rights at SpaceX and owns shares worth over $1 trillion, a governance structure that limits outside shareholders' influence. Botha becomes the latest longtime Musk ally to join the board of one of his companies.