What to know about the SpaceX IPO

The IPO is expected to be a market spectacle as investors get a chance to buy into Musk’s vision to create a combined space and AI powerhouse.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is poised to have the largest stock-market debut in history when it goes public later in June. SpaceX is aiming to raise US$75 billion (S$96.23 billion) in the initial public offering, more than twice the previous record holder.

The IPO is expected to be a market spectacle as investors get a chance to buy into Musk’s vision to create a combined space and AI powerhouse. His long list of growth plans – including putting data centres in space – are hugely ambitious but also come with high costs, significant risks and could take many years to come to fruition.

The company plans to market about 555.6 million shares at US$135 apiece, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At that price, SpaceX would have a market value of almost US$1.77 trillion.

SpaceX’s goal of raising US$75 billion in the IPO would shatter the previous record set by Saudi Aramco’s US$29.4 billion in 2019.

The big question is whether such a large valuation can be sustained in public markets.

Analysts value companies based on their future earnings and growth, as well as industry competition and profit margins. But valuation is not a pure science. Especially in bullish market conditions, investors are sometimes prepared to pay up for a company’s shares based on something other than fundamentals.

Some might see the seemingly vast potential of the company’s space businesses as justifying a higher price than the current financials would ordinarily support. But the challenges surrounding SpaceX’s xAI business could dampen the appeal.

Even though SpaceX generates significant cash flow, largely from Starlink, its satellite-based internet broadband service, the company requires a lot more money to fund its biggest ambitions.

SpaceX has indicated that IPO proceeds will be used, among other things, to expand the company’s AI computing infrastructure, enhance its space infrastructure and rockets and boost its satellite constellations.

SpaceX could have opted to continue raising capital in private markets rather than going public. But the company’s funding needs appear to have risen substantially with the acquisition in February of xAI, which is burning through around US$1 billion of cash per month to cover the cost of computing infrastructure including training its AI models, according to people briefed on the company’s financials.

IPO paperwork shows that SpaceX’s AI segment, which includes xAI, had an operating loss of US$6.4 billion in 2025 and nearly US$2.5 billion in the first three months of 2026. That said, SpaceX just entered into a deal in which Anthropic PBC will pay it US$1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for AI computing capacity.