Morgan Stanley (MS) is rehiring Michael Grimes, its former star tech investment banker who left the bank for a brief stint with the Trump administration, to head its investment banking business, according to a media report on Tuesday.
The banker, who has been a close adviser of Elon Musk, is returning to Wall Street as investment banks jockey for a piece of SpaceX’s (SPACE) initial public offering. The deal, poised to be the world’s largest IPO, is set to produce massive fees for banks.
“We have asked Michael to bring his expertise to the full banking and [institutional securities group] franchise, particularly as technology transforms productivity and impacts global industrial policy,” Morgan Stanley executives wrote in a memo to employees, according to the Financial Times.
For the past year, Grimes worked as an adviser in the U.S. Commerce Department and headed the government’s investment unit. He essentially acted as an in-house dealmaker for the administration, which has acquired several stakes in strategic companies, including chipmaker Intel (INTC) and minerals producer USA Rare Earth (USAR), the FT reported.
At Morgan Stanley, he played important roles in leading some of the biggest tech IPOs, including Facebook and Airbnb. He also helped advise Musk on financing his $44B acquisition of Twitter, since renamed X.
Grimes gained fame in Wall Street lore as the investment banker who became an Uber driver to help Morgan Stanley (MS) win a prime role in the rideshare company’s IPO in 2019.
Morgan Stanley stock rose 0.6% in Tuesday morning trading. The company didn’t immediately respond to Seeking Alpha’s request for comment.