SpaceX is aiming for an IPO valued at $20 billion

Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX has filed its initial public offering (IPO) documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday. According to U.S. media reports, SpaceX is aiming for a launch in June. However, discussions are still ongoing, and the details of the deal could still change.

This could potentially pave the way for other massive initial public offerings, notably those of OpenAI and Anthropic, whose technologies compete with Grok, the conversational agent developed by xAI. With valuations of $852 billion and $380 billion, respectively, each would represent another major challenge for the New York Stock Exchange.

According to The Information, SpaceX hopes to raise $75 billion through a stock offering, which would be three times the size of the largest offering ever. The record is currently held by the oil giant Saudi Aramco, which raised $25.6 billion in 2019. The funds would be used to finance SpaceX’s ambitious projects, such as AI data centers in space, a factory on the Moon, and the conquest of Mars. To this end, SpaceX is relying on a banking consortium comprising major institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, tasked with supporting this historic operation.

Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who remains its CEO and largest shareholder, SpaceX currently dominates the space launch market, largely thanks to Starlink. Revenue from these activities is expected to reach around $20 billion by 2026. In addition to satellites, SpaceX has already sent several crews of astronauts to the International Space Station using its Crew Dragon capsule.

The company has also launched its Starlink satellite constellation, which is now the group’s main source of revenue thanks to sales of its internet service.

The Texas-based company is currently developing a mega-rocket, dubbed Starship, which has already successfully completed several test flights but has not yet made a commercial flight. SpaceX is also working on the development of data centers in space, based on the concept of a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit.

As for its owner, Elon Musk, such an IPO could push his total net worth past $1 trillion, according to BFMTV.

According to Forbes magazine’s rankings, thanks to the merger of his companies SpaceX and xAI, Elon Musk now has a fortune of $852 billion, making him the first person to cross the symbolic $800 billion threshold. He could, in fact, very soon become the world’s richest person.