Two members of Congress — Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania) and Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) – said they or their family members had made the purchases. space x Stock price days after the company’s historic initial public offering, according to publicly accessible House financial documents.
Mr. Mueser recently disclosed that his dependent child purchased stock in the company on June 15 for between $15,001 and $50,000. It was the first time in several years that Mr. Mueser or anyone in his family had bought stock in an individual company, according to financial disclosures.
Cisneros disclosed that he purchased SpaceX stock on June 18th for between $1,001 and $15,000.
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace and satellite company, went public on June 12 with a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion.
A spokesperson for Mr. Muser did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Cisneros told CNBC in a statement that he does not personally manage his portfolio.
“My wife and I have always employed outside financial advisors who have a fiduciary responsibility to maintain a diversified portfolio. We do not manage the day-to-day transactions of our investment portfolio, nor have we proposed any transactions while working for Congress or the Department of Defense,” said Cisneros, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021 to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
“Furthermore, while serving in both the executive and legislative branches of government, I have always complied with all rules and regulations regarding stock trading and financial disclosure. I also continue to advocate for increased ethical oversight of federal elected and politically appointed officials regarding their financial portfolios,” Cisneros continued in his statement.
Members of Congress and their immediate family members are allowed to own and trade individual stocks as long as they comply with disclosure rules and do not use confidential information obtained through their public offices. There is no evidence that Mr. Mueser or Mr. Cisneros traded on nonpublic information or violated any laws.
Stock laws require lawmakers to disclose transactions by themselves, their spouses and dependent children.
Still, the membership committee’s mandate makes the deal politically sensitive. Mr. Muser serves on the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over securities and exchanges, and Mr. Cisneros serves on the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Department of Defense, SpaceX’s main customer.
Ethics watchdog groups previously told CNBC that the filings are likely the tip of the iceberg for what will emerge from financial disclosures in the coming weeks. Many expect that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would have traded SpaceX’s IPO.
SpaceX went public in June, raising about $75 billion in the largest IPO in history. The stock price started at $150, and the company’s market value quickly rose to more than $2 trillion, making the listing a test of public demand for masks and artificial intelligence.
Mr. Musk and his companies are playing an increasingly important role in Republican politics and federal contracts.
The IPO marks the beginning of what could be a wave of major listings by private technology companies, including AI giant Anthropic, which has been at the forefront of policy discussions in Washington, D.C., has secretly filed for a U.S. IPO, and rival OpenAI has followed soon after, targeting a valuation that could reach $1 trillion.
SpaceX stock closed Thursday at $162, up about 8% from its opening price of $150 but about 20% below its June 16 closing high of $201.80.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNBC previously revealed that Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), one of the top House Republican leaders, made investments that stand to benefit from SpaceX’s public debut after her husband bought $250,000 in xAI stock before Musk spun off the artificial intelligence company into SpaceX.
There is no evidence that Mr. McClain knew about subsequent government actions involving xAI or transactions using nonpublic information.
“Chairman McClain’s investments are a matter of public record,” House Republican Conference communications director Joe Buccino told CNBC in a June statement. “They are drafted in line with all House of Commons legislation and applicable law.”
CNBC did not identify other lawmakers with relatively clear direct stakes in SpaceX or expected tech IPOs from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, but tracking holdings in private companies can be difficult.
Efforts to ban lawmakers from owning or trading individual stocks have been percolating for years, but have repeatedly failed.
House Republican leaders vowed late last year to bring a bill to the floor that would ban members from trading while they are in office. A similar proposal was introduced out of committee in the Senate in July 2025. Neither chamber has taken further action on the parliamentary deal ban.
