SpaceX is forging ahead with plans for an initial public offering to raise “significantly” more than $30 billion, sources told Bloomberg. The Elon Musk-led company is reportedly targeting a valuation of $1.5 trillion. If that indeed happens, the transaction would be by far the biggest stock-market listing of all time, Crunchbase data shows.
A SpaceX IPO could take place as early as mid- to late-2026, or possibly in 2027, Bloomberg reported.
Until October, Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX was the world’s most valuable private, venture-backed company. It was reportedly valued at $400 billion after a secondary share sale this summer.
OpenAI took over the top spot when it conducted its own secondary share sale at a valuation of $500 billion.
Founded in 2002, SpaceX has raised nearly $12 billion in its lifetime, according to Crunchbase. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures, Valor Equity Partners and Founders Fund, among others.
Record IPOs
A stock-market listing at its reported target valuation would dwarf the initial valuations of any other venture-backed startups on record. The largest to date remains Facebook’s IPO in 2012 that valued the social media company (now named Meta) at $104 billion.
More mega IPOs could be on tap
Notably, SpaceX’s potential IPO, while the largest, is not the only massive listing that may be in the works.
The largest two generative AI startups, OpenAI and Anthropic, are also reportedly mulling public listings that would value them in the hundreds of millions of dollars, or more. OpenAI is reportedly eyeing an initial public valuation of up to $1 trillion if it goes public as soon as next year, while Anthropic is currently said to be pursuing fresh funding at a private valuation of more than $300 billion. So it would presumably seek an even higher market cap in a public offering, although it’s yet unclear how high.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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