SpaceX plans record IPO of over $75 billion – Musk retains majority voting rights

SpaceX is setting the issue price itself, deviating from the usual procedure where companies first announce a price range and then determine the final price based on investor demand. Given the enormous scale, NASDAQ has adapted its rules specifically for this IPO.

Issue Price and Placement Volume

At the targeted price, the company is valued at nearly $1.8 trillion. According to insider information, SpaceX values itself at around $1.75 trillion based on the issue price. This would make SpaceX more valuable than Facebook's parent company Meta, which currently has a market capitalization of about $1.6 trillion. The 555 million shares initially placed alone represent about 4.3 percent of the company.

A notable feature is the high proportion intended for retail investors. Almost a third of the placed shares are earmarked for retail investors, compared to the usual quotas of five to ten percent. Industry observers interpret this as a sign that SpaceX is deliberately aiming to attract a broad investor base.

Roadshow and Investor Structure

In preparation for the IPO, the company has begun a multi-day roadshow. SpaceX managers are traveling to various cities and conducting video conferences to present the company to large institutional investors as well as private investors. Trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol SPCX is scheduled to begin on June 12.

Despite the gigantic valuation, SpaceX continues to incur losses. In the past fiscal year, the deficit was around $4.94 billion, while revenue was $18.67 billion (approximately 16 billion euros). A significant reason for the red figures is the high development costs of the 124-meter Starship rocket, which is intended to carry humans to the moon on behalf of NASA.

Financial Situation: Loss Despite Billion-Dollar Revenue

The largest source of income remains the satellite internet service Starlink. The service contributed around $11.4 billion to revenue in 2025, almost 50 percent more than in the previous year. In addition, there are lucrative contracts with the US space agency NASA and a dominant position in the rocket launch market.

The issuance is expected to increase the value of Elon Musk's stake in SpaceX to around $866.5 billion, according to calculations. Together with his Tesla shares, valued at approximately $350 billion, Musk would be the first person whose net worth on paper exceeds the trillion-dollar mark. Musk had also contributed his AI company xAI and the online platform X to the SpaceX group; the combined entity was valued at a total of $1.25 trillion, according to media reports.

Elon Musk's Fortune on the Way to a Trillion

Musk's continued control over SpaceX is secured by the stock structure. Through preferred shares with enhanced voting rights, he will hold more than 80 percent of the voting rights after the IPO. Industry insiders see this as a deliberate signal: investors are buying the stock less for short-term gains and more as a bet on Musk's innovative power – comparable to the Tesla success story.

The enormous capital inflow in recent weeks shows that this bet can pay off. British market observers quantify the volume under the X account GagolaValueCapital as follows: "Around $14 billion has flowed into funds related to SpaceX since Musk confirmed the IPO."

Amidst all the euphoria, economists point out that a large portion of Musk's wealth consists of stocks and is therefore difficult to monetize in the short term. The theoretical trillion-dollar status would thus primarily be a balance sheet value, not readily available liquid assets.

Context: Largest IPO in History

With the planned listing in early June, SpaceX is joining the ranks of the world's largest publicly traded corporations. If the valuation of $1.8 trillion is actually achieved, SpaceX would rank among the top companies globally, behind Apple, Microsoft, and NVIDIA.

The IPO comes at a time when other tech giants are also raising fresh capital. Google's parent company Alphabet, for instance, plans a capital increase of $80 billion, in which Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway has already invested ten billion dollars. Nvidia, in turn, introduced a new notebook processor under the name RTX Spark at the Computex trade fair in Taiwan.

The success of the SpaceX IPO is also considered a litmus test for the risk appetite of global investors in an increasingly AI and space-driven market environment. If SpaceX successfully goes public despite the record-high valuation and ongoing losses, it could pave the way for further large offerings.

Risks and Valuation Questions

Observers see the unique aspect of this IPO in the fact that SpaceX is a loss-making yet operationally dominant company. With Starship and the already established Starlink satellites, the group possesses a unique combination of infrastructure and future technology, according to industry circles.

Ultimately, investors must weigh whether they want to bet on short-term returns or on the long-term narrative of Mars missions, moon cities, and space data centers – all projects that Musk has publicly outlined in recent years.

One thing is certain: June 12 will mark a date that is likely to shape financial and technological history for a long time to come. The SPCX listing on NASDAQ will become the stage for one of the boldest bets on a single company in recent years.

For comparison: If SpaceX actually achieves its target volume, the proceeds would be more than double that of the previous record IPO by Saudi Aramco in 2019. No other IPO in the history of capital markets has reached anything close to this magnitude.