Musk Cites Too Many Conflicts With Alphabet as Google Executive Harrison Leaves SpaceX Board
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X on November 6 that Google executive Donald Harrison left the SpaceX board because there were, by now, "just too many conflicts of interest with Alphabet." Harrison had notified the company of his resignation on November 4, effective immediately, after serving on the SpaceX board for more than a decade.
Musk made the remarks in a reply to space industry reporter Sawyer Merritt. "Don was a great board member, very much appreciate his contributions," he wrote. "By now, just too many conflicts of interest with Alphabet, so he chose to step down." The conflicts explanation comes only from Musk's post; SpaceX's formal filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gives no reason for the resignation.
In a Form 8-K filed with the SEC on November 6 and signed by Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen, SpaceX said Harrison notified the company on November 4 that he was resigning as a director, effective immediately, and that the resignation was "not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to its operations, policies or practices." The filing named no successor.
According to Reuters on November 6, Harrison is Google's president of global partnerships and corporate development. Alphabet is SpaceX's largest single institutional shareholder, and Google's holding has risen to about 555 million SpaceX shares. In a statement carried by CNBC, Google said that although Harrison was leaving the board, it remained firmly supportive of SpaceX's mission and happy to continue their longstanding partnership; the statement did not address the reason for his departure. In a note to investors, SpaceX thanked Harrison for his years of service and credited his contributions while the company built its superintelligence infrastructure platform.
Working from SpaceX's S-1/A registration statement filed in June, the industry analysis account FourWeekMBA estimated the board would shrink from eight members to seven, and its independent directors from five to four, after Harrison's exit. That is an estimate based on an earlier filing; SpaceX has not published a new board roster.
As of publication, SpaceX had issued no further statement, and Harrison had made no public comment.
Related:
Source: Elon Musk
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：SpaceX位于加州霍桑的总部大楼外景（资料图）。照片：Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Exterior of SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California (file photo). Photo: Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
