SpaceX seeks record IPO at $1.75 trillion valuation

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to go public next week in what could become the largest initial public offering on record, seeking to raise $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SpaceX said it hopes to sell more than 555 million shares at $135 each. NBC News reported the proposed price would value the company at $1.77 trillion, while the BBC described the valuation as roughly $1.75 trillion.

The final trading price has not been set. The company’s shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq around June 12, according to the BBC, and the price investors ultimately pay could be higher or lower than the proposed $135.

The planned offering would raise more money than any previous IPO. It would also make SpaceX one of the world’s most valuable public companies from its first day of trading. At about $1.77 trillion, NBC News reported, SpaceX would rank as the seventh-largest publicly traded company in the world.

The filing also underscores Musk’s continued control of the company. SpaceX said Musk, who serves as chief executive officer, chief technical officer and chairman, will hold approximately 82.4% of the voting power of its common stock after the IPO. The BBC reported that if shares sell at or above the proposed $135 price, Musk could become a trillionaire.

SpaceX’s approach to pricing the offering is unusual. Companies typically propose a price range, market the shares to investors, and set a final price the evening before trading begins. SpaceX instead listed a fixed $135 share price more than a week before its expected debut. The BBC called the timing one of, if not the earliest, price estimates in stock market history.

Given Musk’s global profile, NBC News reported, the offering may require less marketing to prospective investors than many IPOs. SpaceX said it expects to make shares available to individual retail investors through trading platforms including Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi and E*Trade.

The company said it plans to use proceeds from the offering to invest across its businesses. SpaceX builds rockets and space infrastructure and also owns Starlink. In recent months, it expanded into non-space businesses when it acquired Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence company, which also owns the social media network X.

The valuation would mark a sharp increase from earlier this year, when the BBC said SpaceX had been valued at $1.25 trillion. The company’s financial disclosures show rapid growth alongside sizable losses. Last year, Space Exploration Technologies, SpaceX’s official name, brought in $18.6 billion in revenue and posted a net loss of $4.9 billion. In the first three months of this year, it reported $4.7 billion in sales and a net loss of $4.3 billion. Its balance sheet showed $102 billion in assets and $60.5 billion in debt.

Some analysts cautioned that the proposed valuation is high. “There is no doubt the valuation is incredibly rich,” Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets research at Mergermarket, told the BBC. He said SpaceX is pricing itself at a sales ratio higher than any major company in the group investors call the “Mag 7” — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft and Tesla.

“But SpaceX is being valued on future earnings and revenue rather than the here and now, so some investors might be willing to overlook that,” Kerr added.

Ruth Foxe-Blader, managing partner at Citrine Venture Partners, told the BBC the company’s wide range of projects is part of its appeal. “SpaceX is just an absolutely sprawling, enormous project with so many different selling points, and so many points that really point to the future,” she said.