Giant inflatable effigy of Elon Musk with Ketamine tattoo appears in New York's Time Square ahead of Space X IPO

Activists inflated the 40-foot-tall torso of Elon Musk in Manhattan ahead of Friday's floatation, with the group drawing attention to the risk he allegedly poses to investors.

Elon Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX will make its widely anticipated 1.8 trillion US dollar (£1.3 trillion) stock market debut in the US on Friday.

The rocket firm is set to become the largest flotation in history when it lists on the NASDAQ later today.

The giant, laughing effigy of Musk sees the tech billionaire - soon-to-be trillionaire - wearing a baseball cap complete with a heart tattoo on his arm containing the word 'ketamine'.

A tattoo across the figure's torso bears a statement alleging “Grok makes AI child porn” - Musk's AI chatbot that was criticised for allowing the creation of sexualised images of children earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a tattoo on its back reads "Space X owns Grok".

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Masked security stood on either side of the inflatable, as they handed out flyers to passersby.

According to Wired, those monitoring the inflatable would not speak with the media.

The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp, is offering 555.6 million shares at 135 dollars (£101) each, with an unusually high proportion – 30% – being offered to retail investors alongside large institutional players.

The blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq is set to raise 75 billion dollars (£56.2 billion) for SpaceX to help it launch 100,000 next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit as part of aims to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) data centres in space.

However, concerns exist over the firm's profitability, as despite the eye-watering flotation on the stock market, Space X is yet to make a profit.

It could also make Tesla and X owner Mr Musk – already a billionaire – the world’s first trillionaire and cement his position as the richest man on the planet.

Forbes currently values Mr Musk’s net worth at 826 billion dollars (£619 billion) and his stake in SpaceX at 542 billion dollars (£406 billion)

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said Mr Musk’s decision to offer such a big chunk to retail investors shows a desire to tap into his “cult-like status with some retail investors” but also highlights their growing might.

She said: “The retail trading community contributes 20% to 30% of daily volume in major developed markets like the UK and the US.

“Retail trading demand hit a record in early 2026, and by the end of this year total monthly volume across global brokers is set to reach 37 trillion dollars (£28 trillion).

“Retail traders are no longer a niche, meme stock-obsessed corner of global financial markets.

“They are a powerful force that are structurally important, for example, they have helped to stabilise markets during periods of intense volatility in recent years.”

But she said there are worries over SpaceX’s sky-high valuation.

She added: “It is priced at 56 times future revenues, which is a huge multiple.

“2025 revenue came in at 18.67 billion dollars (£14 billion), up a third on 2024, but the company still posted a loss last year of 4.94 billion dollars (£3.7 billion).

“This year, total revenue is expected to come in at 25 billion dollars (£18.8 billion), a decent jump on 2025, but it is revenue forecasts further in the future that are problematic.”