SpaceX, Earth's Most Valuable Private Company And Owner Of xAI And X, Files For IPO

SpaceX, the rocket and satellite company founded by Elon Musk, reportedly no longer wants to be the world's most valuable private company, because it has confidentially filed to become a public company instead. This is the first step towards leading the space juggernaut to an IPO, which is currently expected to be one of the largest in history, if not the largest. This would give both institutional and retail investors access to an enterprise that launched a rocket every other day in 2025 and has put 10,000 Starlink satellites into orbit. And because Musk recently folded his xAI business into SpaceX, after folding his X social media platform into xAI (the man really loves that letter), this offering would also give investors access to the AI boom and/or bubble.

Bloomberg broke the story, citing anonymous sources. The outlet believes this puts SpaceX on track for an IPO in June, with a potential valuation of $1.75 trillion. That is a very specific number: it is just over the valuation of the previous record-holder, which was $1.7 trillion for Saudi Aramco back in 2019. For what it's worth, when Musk brought xAI into the space company, that maneuver valued the company at "only" $1.25 trillion. Peasant money! In terms of how much money the offering could raise, the New York Times cites Musk as hoping for $50 billion, whereas Bloomberg suspects it may be closer to $75 billion. For reference, the Aramco offering raised "only" $29 billion. Barely enough to buy groceries these days!

An entire army of banks are apparently shepherding the IPO, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and many others. Surprising no one, the stocks will likely be dual-class, meaning Musk's stocks will have voting privileges beyond whatever stocks you can buy. In other words, this is a fundraising move; Musk will not be ceding any actual control. Bloomberg believes as much as 30% of the IPO will be available to retail investors (i.e., you).

SpaceX is the largest single player in space right now, and probably also the letter "X." Its launch cadence is the wonder of the industry; its Falcon 9 rocket is currently the vehicle for getting astronauts to the International Space Station, and it also puts a huge number of commercial and military satellites into space, the bulk of which are its own Starlink orbiters. Starlink itself made $8 billion in revenue in 2024; Bloomberg estimates that SpaceX will earn around $20 billion in 2026.

The company also has ambitious future plans, though how realistic they are is debatable. Its next-generation Starship rocket will theoretically land astronauts on the Moon, but development has fallen so far behind schedule that NASA may shift to rival Blue Origin. Then there's the truly wild plan to build a whole industrial city on the Moon. On top of all that, SpaceX also wants to put 1 million AI data center satellites into orbit. That is... very busy! Oh, did I forget to mention it might be getting into weaponry too?

Don't forget that xAI is building Grok, the beleaguered AI that has been accused of creating sexualized images without consent, including of children. That's apparently being "rebuilt from the foundations up," according to Musk. AI has been the darling of Wall Street for years now, so theoretically its presence in SpaceX will boost the evaluation. And oh yeah, X! Remember X? It used to be Twitter? That's in there too.

Why might Musk be considering this now? Currently, Forbes puts Musk's net worth at $822 billion, the most of any individual in the world. But you know... big, round numbers are really nice. Perhaps being the world's first trillionaire will cure anything that might ail Musk. But where to get a big chunk of extra cash? If only there were some sort of IPO he could do to make that happen.