Elon Musk’s SpaceX Files Confidentially for Record-Breaking $1.75 Trillion IPO

In brief

• SpaceX has confidentially filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg reported.
• The filing could lead to a listing that values the company in the trillions.
• Musk merged SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI earlier this year, creating a combined entity valued at nearly $2 trillion.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to reports today from Bloomberg and CNBC. The company is reportedly targeting a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion after merging with Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI. The aerospace company seeks to raise as much as $75 billion in what would be the largest public offering in history, according to Bloomberg, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion debut in 2019. The confidential filing allows regulators to review the company’s finances privately before they become public. The IPO is expected to launch in June, Bloomberg said. 

While Musk has not made a public statement about the filing, he has suggested the plan was on his radar. In February 2021, Musk posted on X that SpaceX’s internet service Starlink could go public, “Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well.” In December, after Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, posted “Here’s why I think SpaceX is going public soon,” Musk responded, “As usual, Eric is accurate.” The June timeline would give SpaceX the jump on other potential blockbuster IPOs to come, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The IPO would aim to fund what the company described as an “insane flight rate” for its developmental Starship rocket, artificial intelligence data centers in space, and a lunar base, according to an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg. Musk’s long-term ambitions center on Starship, SpaceX’s rocket system designed for deep-space missions. SpaceX says the vehicle will eventually carry cargo and crew to the Moon and Mars. However, setbacks, including Starship explosions, have kept that dream from coming to fruition.