SpaceX Prepares for IPO Valued at Up to $2 Trillion

SpaceX is preparing to go public in what is expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings in history. The company is set to file paperwork next week for a listing on June 12 under the ticker SPCX that could value it at up to $2 trillion.

The offering follows the merger of SpaceX with xAI, which includes the social media platform X and an artificial intelligence lab. Elon Musk testified last month in a courtroom in Oakland, California, in a case against Sam Altman. " He said he generally thinks his companies are going to fail until proven otherwise and noted that anyone who was good would not have joined the company early on because he was just an internet guy from his previous business, PayPal.

SpaceX, based at Starbase on the Gulf coast in Texas, employs more than 17,000 people. It serves as the primary transport service for astronauts traveling to and from the International Space Station and controls 80 percent of the launch market, firing a rocket every other day.

The company also operates Starlink, which provides high-speed internet from the largest collection of satellites in history and accounts for roughly two thirds of group sales.

The company reported $18.5 billion in sales last year but recorded a $5 billion loss, largely due to spending on new data centers to power xAI. Starlink has tripled its customers to more than 10 million over the past two years as satellites are added weekly to expand coverage and speeds.

In February, Musk merged SpaceX with xAI, and last month the company struck a deal with the AI coding start-up Cursor that gives it the option to acquire the San Francisco company for $60 billion later this year. The investor roadshow for the offering is scheduled to begin on June 8.

Leaked numbers show a collection of businesses that include space launches, satellite internet, social media, artificial intelligence and data centers. Musk has outlined plans for solar-powered data centers in space orbiting at 22,000 miles an hour, artificial intelligence that could make work optional, and the colonization of Mars as a backup plan for humanity.

Two decades ago, SpaceX nearly failed.

Musk invested most of the $100 million he received from the sale of PayPal into the company, which he founded in 2002 to develop reusable rockets. The first three rockets exploded. On September 28, 2008, the fourth launch of the Falcon 1 rocket succeeded from Omelek Island in the Pacific.

Three months later, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to fly cargo to the International Space Station. The company has since reduced launch costs by a factor of 20, enabling new businesses in zero-gravity manufacturing, asteroid mining and imaging satellites.

An expert in company valuation at New York University’s Stern School of Business estimated SpaceX’s value at $1.2 trillion based on limited public information.