Roelof Botha speaks onstage throughout day one among TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at Moscone Heart on Oct. 27, 2025 in San Francisco, California.
Kimberly White | Getty Pictures
Lower than every week after main SpaceX by way of a report IPO, CEO Elon Musk has bolstered the rocket maker’s board with one other longtime good friend and ally, Roelof Botha.
In a submitting on Wednesday, SpaceX mentioned Botha will function an unbiased director and a member of the corporate’s audit committee beginning instantly. Botha turns into the eighth board member at SpaceX, the place Musk serves as chairman, along with his roles as CEO and know-how chief.
Since 2003, Botha has labored at enterprise agency Sequoia, ultimately climbing his solution to managing director in 2022, earlier than stepping down from that place final yr. He is now an adviser to the agency and is listed on its web site as a part of the seed and early-stage group in addition to the expansion group.
Musk recruited Botha to PayPal in 2000 through the early days of the web cost firm. Each males are from South Africa.
Sequoia has been a giant backer of Musk’s corporations, investing in SpaceX in addition to Neuralink and The Boring Firm. It additionally contributed to Musk’s leveraged buyout of Twitter, which is now generally known as X and is owned by SpaceX.
The agency first invested in SpaceX in 2019 and added to its place in future rounds, increase what now quantities to a stake of just below 1.5% valued at roughly $35 billion. Sequoia accomplice Shaun Maguire is the agency’s principal lead investor in SpaceX, and Botha will not be representing Sequoia on the board.
Maguire informed CNBC on Friday, as SpaceX was nearly to debut on the Nasdaq, that Sequoia will distribute some shares to buyers “if we really feel just like the valuation is approach forward of its skis.” He mentioned that, “as a person, I will maintain my shares without end.”
The submitting additionally mentioned Botha is said to a SpaceX worker, however did not identify the individual.
A Sequoia spokesperson declined to remark and a consultant from SpaceX did not reply to a request for remark.
Musk controls extra than 82% of voting rights at SpaceX and owns shares within the firm value over $1 trillion. The governance mannequin offers exterior shareholders little capability to exert affect.
Botha exited his oversight position at Sequoia final yr because the agency was embroiled in controversy. The Monetary Occasions reported that colleagues had been essential of Botha’s administration type, and he stirred up hassle with some buyers by defending remarks made by Maguire that had been extensively criticized as Islamaphobic.
WATCH: SpaceX provides Sequoia’s Roelof Botha to board
