SpaceX Files for Historic 175 Trillion Dollar IPO in Largest Ever Stock Market Debut

SpaceX has taken its first concrete step towards what would be the largest initial public offering in stock market history, filing confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week in preparation for a listing that could value the rocket company at USD 1.75 trillion.

The filing, reported by Bloomberg, opens the door to a public debut on the New York Stock Exchange potentially as early as June. SpaceX is seeking to raise up to USD 75 billion through the offering, a figure approximately three times larger than the next-biggest stock market float on record, the 2019 listing of Saudi Aramco. That listing valued the state-owned oil giant at USD 1.7 trillion; the SpaceX valuation would narrowly surpass it, marking a significant milestone for the private space and technology sector.

The timing of the proposed float is notable given persistent market instability linked to the ongoing conflict in Iran. That Elon Musk is pressing ahead regardless signals a degree of confidence, or perhaps urgency, particularly in light of the competitive dynamics at play between SpaceX and OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company led by his long-standing rival Sam Altman. The two billionaires have been engaged in a series of legal disputes tracing back to the founding of OpenAI. With Altman’s company expected to pursue its own public listing potentially within the same calendar year, Musk appears determined to reach the market first.

The competitive backdrop sharpened further this week as OpenAI confirmed it had closed a funding round raising USD 122 billion from investors, an increase of approximately USD 12 billion on previous totals. That round values OpenAI at USD 852 billion, a figure that, whilst substantial, remains well below SpaceX’s targeted IPO valuation.

SpaceX has been working with a consortium of leading investment banks on the planned listing, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan. According to Reuters, Musk is also considering allocating an unusually large proportion of shares to retail investors, a move that would allow him to leverage his considerable public profile and loyal following.

Analysts have not been shy in identifying a so-called “Musk premium” embedded within SpaceX’s ballooning valuation, drawing parallels with Tesla, his electric vehicle business, which has similarly achieved a market capitalisation exceeding USD 1 trillion on the back of investor sentiment closely tied to its founder’s personal brand. The concern, therefore, is that the valuation rests on more than pure fundamentals.

The company’s most recent private valuation stood at USD 1.25 trillion as of January, following a rapid merger with xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence venture that controls the social media platform X and the chatbot Grok. That transaction materially altered the company’s asset base and strategic positioning ahead of the IPO.

Musk has justified the elevated valuation by pointing to SpaceX’s ambitions in the global artificial intelligence race. He has announced plans to launch as many as one million satellites, which would collectively form a network of space-based data centres powered by solar energy and designed to support superintelligent AI systems. The viability of that plan, however, has been openly questioned by several analysts.

Speculation persists within the investment community regarding a potential future merger between SpaceX and Tesla. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, has stated publicly that he expects the two companies to merge into a single entity by 2027, a scenario that would consolidate the majority of Musk’s commercial empire under one publicly traded structure.

The IPO also carries significant implications for British investors. Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based investment manager, is a longstanding backer of SpaceX and stands to benefit materially from a successful public listing. Musk himself controls more than 42 per cent of SpaceX’s economic value and retains overall control of its voting stock. Having kept the company private for over two decades, a listing would represent a fundamental shift in its governance and capital structure, exposing it to the scrutiny and obligations that accompany life as a publicly traded company.

The float is expected to coincide with a broader moment of ambition for the space industry. NASA’s Artemis II mission, scheduled for launch imminently, will take astronauts on a lunar flyby as part of the agency’s programme to return humans to the Moon. SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket, still under development, is expected to play a central role in the planned lunar landings that follow.