SpaceX, the rocketmaker and satellite operator controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, which could pave the way for the biggest stock market listing in history.
The Starbase, Texas-based company is targeting a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday (1 April 2026), citing people aware of the matter. That would signal that space exploration has moved from speculative venture to mainstream investment.
The filing for a SpaceX IPO follows a merger of SpaceX and Musk’s AI startup xAI. That deal valued the rocket business at $1 trillion and the developer of the Grok chatbot at $250 billion. Last year, the world’s richest person merged X (formerly Twitter) into xAI via a share swap.
Musk is reportedly seeking a SpaceX listing on the Nasdaq.
SpaceX IPO: Breaking Records
SpaceX may seek to raise more than $50 billion, eclipsing the $29.4 billion raised by Saudi Aramco in 2019. The move comes as a jolt to a dormant US IPO market, potentially opening the floodgates for the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
“Investors seem to be clamouring for any sort of exposure to SpaceX,” Angelo Bochanis, an analyst at Renaissance Capital, told Reuters. While the company’s fundamentals are robust, its valuation—much like Tesla Inc.’s—will likely trade on the public’s belief in Musk’s long-term vision, he said.
SpaceX generated ~$8 billion in profit on revenue of roughly $15.5 billion last year, according to reports. This profitability is underpinned by two primary drivers:
- A fleet of reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets that have slashed the cost of reaching orbit.
- A satellite internet constellation called Starlink that provides high-margin recurring revenue for Musk’s broader ambitions.
SpaceX IPO: Eyes on Musk
A public listing would bring into scrutiny Musk’s business empire, which includes Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Co. Investors have expressed concerns over “key man risk” and the billionaire’s ability to manage multiple trillion-dollar enterprises simultaneously.
To maintain his grip, Musk is expected to utilise a dual-class share structure. “This would let Musk tap public capital while retaining control, even after substantial dilution,” Minmo Gahng, assistant professor of finance at Cornell University, told Reuters.
SpaceX is currently seeking regulatory approval to launch up to 1 million solar-powered satellites designed to function as orbital data centres—a move that would marry its launch capabilities with xAI’s processing needs.
SpaceX IPO: A Strategic Frontier
The IPO arrives as the new space race becomes a matter of national security. With NASA increasingly reliant on commercial partners for lunar missions and the Pentagon viewing space as a contested domain, SpaceX’s infrastructure has become a strategic asset.
By taking the company public, Musk is not only seeking the capital required to reach Mars but is also betting that Wall Street’s current obsession with AI will extend to the stars.
