By Akash Sriram
Aug 1 (Reuters) - SpaceX's first earnings call as a public company may be expected to focus on AI spending and profits from its Starlink satellite communications network, but many retail investors have other things on their minds.
Taking a page from Elon Musk's other big company, Tesla, newly public rocket maker SpaceX has opened an online venue for investors to ask questions ahead of a call about results that is expected to feature Musk. Users can submit questions and vote on which
ones will be answered, creating a list ranked by popularity.
Among the most popular shareholder questions submitted ahead of Tuesday's call were requests for more footage of Starship's Human Landing System, the vehicle designed to carry astronauts to the moon for NASA's Artemis program next year.
Investors also asked whether Asteroid, SpaceX's recently unveiled Shiba Inu mascot, celebrated with a $35 plush toy, could take on a larger role in education, children's charities and outreach.
Other shareholders wanted to know when the new Starship would begin refueling in orbit, when it would catch both its booster and upper stage, and how to improve the rocket's look.
"Can we paint the rocket pink?" a user asked.
Another suggested selling sponsorships for individual heat shield tiles so fans could have their names flown into space.
The eclectic mix of questions comes after SpaceX set aside roughly 30% of its IPO shares for retail investors, one of the largest individual investor allocations in a major U.S. listing.
SpaceX's shares lost more than half their value from their post-IPO intraday peak. Still, questions about its business outlook and finances were relatively unpopular, and those that did get some support focused on issues such as timing of sending orbital AI data centers into space rather than finances.
When the company's AI business could begin paying for itself was question number 183 as of late on Friday afternoon.
Tesla posted its own results Wednesday last week and investors then repeatedly pressed Musk about a potential merger with SpaceX, including several questions that attracted more than 100 votes.
But the same topic barely registered on SpaceX's forum, where it appeared just once with a single upvote on Friday morning, the morning after the Wall Street Journal reported that executives at Tesla have been told to prepare for a separation of its China business ahead of a potential merger. Musk denied the report.
Most retail investors were optimistic about SpaceX's future, but one user questioned whether Musk's own long-term vision made investing worthwhile. Musk has said advances in AI and robotics could eventually create a world of abundance where goods and services become so inexpensive that money may lose much of its importance.
"If money won't matter in 10 years like Elon recently stated... then why should people buy more shares and invest more money?" the investor asked. The question received no upvotes with four days left till the company publishes its first quarterly results.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; editing by Peter Henderson and David Gregorio)
