Elon Musk’s SpaceX has officially set its initial public offering at a price of $135 per share on Thursday, setting projections of a $75 billion raise in the largest stock market debut in history and valuing Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company at almost $1.77 trillion.
The offering eclipses Saudi Aramco’s December 2019 IPO, which brought in $25.6 billion at a $1.71 trillion valuation, according to Reuters. SpaceX has currently sold 555.56 million shares and will begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday.
SpaceX debuts on Elon Musk’s terms
SpaceX locked in its share price during a Thursday afternoon meeting with bankers and disclosed it in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission while U.S. markets were still open, Reuters reported. IPO pricing announcements typically come after the 4 PM market close to avoid the risk of market-moving events affecting the deal.
Musk also reserved roughly 30% of shares for individual retail investors, far above the typical 10% allocation usually given to this section of investors, according to NBC News. Edward Best, co-chair of the capital markets practice at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, told NBC that the figure was “actually quite high” and attributed it in part to Musk’s personal interest in individual buyers.
Retail demand appears to have validated Elon’s bet, as Forbes reported that regular investors placed more than $100 billion in orders for SpaceX shares, far exceeding the available supply set aside.
After the IPO, Musk will retain 82% control of the tech company, according to Reuters.
Valuation raises skepticism
With the intended valuation of $1.77 trillion, SpaceX will rank seventh among U.S.-listed companies when trading opens on its stock market debut, ahead of JPMorgan Chase, Meta Platforms, and Musk’s own Tesla.
And as expected, not everyone believes this price tag is accurate or valid. Morningstar analysts wrote last week that SpaceX is “overvalued” given its financials, and pegged their own value estimate at $780 billion. The tech company generated roughly $19 billion in revenue last year; however, it has not yet turned any profit.
“With a small initial float boosted by almost every investment bank on the planet, buoyant investor appetite for AI infrastructure bids, and an unprecedented path to inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 Index just 15 trading days after the IPO, we expect SpaceX’s share price will likely survive separation and even ascent toward orbit, at least for a time,” the Morningstar analysts wrote, according to NBC News.
Dan Hanson, senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, whose fund invested in SpaceX while it was still private, offered a more bullish view. He told NBC News that investors should view the company as a combination of its launch business, Starlink satellite internet network, and AI ambitions. “This team is just getting started,” Hanson stated.
SpaceX’s products and ventures
The company’s satellite internet service, Starlink, currently generates the majority of SpaceX’s revenue. The network connects customers across 164 countries, according to Reuters. Its rocket operations account for more than four-fifths of all mass launched into orbit over the past three years, the company stated in its prospectus.
SpaceX pegs its total addressable market at $28.5 trillion, though a large portion of that figure rests on xAI, its artificial intelligence unit.
The company’s IPO could help define a year that Goldman Sachs has forecast will produce a record $160 billion in total IPO proceeds. That IPO pipeline includes OpenAI and Anthropic alongside SpaceX.
Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, told NBC News that any one of these three offerings “could raise more money than every other deal, combined.” He estimated SpaceX alone will raise more than all U.S. IPOs in 2024 and 2025 combined.
