SpaceX is seeking to raise $75 billion in an initial public offering that would be the biggest of all time, as Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company aims for a historic debut that could clear a path for more mega-listings.
The Texas-based company plans to market about 555.6 million shares for $135 each, according to its filing Wednesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At that price, SpaceX would have a market value of almost $1.77 trillion based on the outstanding shares in the filing.
Mr Musk’s decision to offer shares at a fixed price ahead of the order-taking is almost unheard of for sizeable US IPOs, unlike in Europe and Asia. Most companies typically announce a price range before marketing shares during investor presentations, with only a handful of tiny firms skipping the opportunity to gauge demand, and potentially build excitement by pricing at the top or above.
At $75 billion, SpaceX’s IPO would easily surpass Aramco’s record $29.4 billion listing in 2019, and would open the door to debuts for OpenAI and Anthropic. The firms are expected to seek double-digit billion-dollar IPOs of their own if they both go ahead with plans to list this year, catching investors’ seemingly unquenchable thirst for AI.
Accounting for employee stock options and restricted stock units, the company would have a fully diluted value of at least $1.8 trillion. That compares with a valuation of $1.25 trillion the company reached in February when it acquired Mr Musk’s AI business xAI, Bloomberg News reported.
At $1.8 trillion, SpaceX would be bigger than all but six of the companies in the S&P 500 Index, and larger than Mr Musk’s own Tesla.
Almost a trillionaire
At the offering price, the net worth of Mr Musk – the world’s richest person – would settle at about $988 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, just shy of making him the first trillionaire.
Still, given shares can be sold at a higher price – and IPOs typically gain in their first day – he could hit the mark late next week when shares are expected to be listed.
Mr Musk is expected to keep tight control over the company. He’s set to have 84.4 per cent voting power after the IPO, against 85 per cent currently, through Class B shares that have 10 votes each, where as Class A stock comes with one apiece. Mr Musk’s ownership of 93.6 per cent of the Class B shares gives him the ability to elect 51 per cent of the board and decide on removing himself from leadership positions, effectively preventing his being fired against his will.
Critics of the IPO oppose Mr Musk having near-unlimited control over the company, and provisions that would, under Texas law, require certain disputes to be handled in the state’s business court or through arbitration.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on criticism of Mr Musk’s control.
Lofty goals
SpaceX is expected to begin trading the day after the share sale, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News.
The filing tees the company up to begin the formal marketing process for the IPO on Thursday. Mr Musk and executives are due to officially take their pitch to investors, reeling off SpaceX’s grand plans not only for so-called orbital AI compute at scale but to build out its direct-to-cell wireless business, ramping up AI semiconductor production with Tesla, and, eventually, building bases on the Moon and a colony on Mars.
The challenge remains squaring SpaceX’s lofty goals with its recent history. The company had a net loss of $4.94 billion last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, versus net income of $791 million on $14 billion of revenue in 2024, according to the filing.
