As SpaceX prepares to list on the Nasdaq tomorrow in what could be the largest IPO in history, its rise raises a deeper question: how much sovereign power governments are prepared to allow a private company to accumulate in space.

Although SpaceX is not about to rule over foreign subjects, as the chartered companies founded in the early modern era did, it, too, is operating beyond the reach of any sovereign. And like its predecessors, it has already accumulated immense powers that governments will struggle to reclaim.

When SpaceX lists a fraction of its shares on the Nasdaq tomorrow, at an anticipated valuation around $1.75 trillion, it will be the largest initial public offering in history. Investors are being asked to price a company that builds rockets, runs the world’s dominant satellite-internet network, and increasingly underwrites the military communications of the US and its allies (though these successful businesses must be weighed against the cash-burning AI venture that Elon Musk has bundled into the same corporate structure).

The SpaceX prospectus tells an ambitious, singular story: this is a high-growth technology champion that deserves to stand alongside the world’s largest and most powerful companies. But history suggests another, less reassuring trajectory, because the enterprise that SpaceX most resembles is not Apple or Nvidia. It is the East India Company, which lasted nearly 300 years.

To be sure, SpaceX is not about to tax populations or rule over human subjects, as the chartered companies founded in the early modern era eventually did. Space has no inhabitants (that we know of). Still, we are dealing with a firm that is operating beyond the reach of any sovereign, and which has already accumulated immense........

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