SpaceX will reportedly begin hearing pitches from investment banks as it weighs a historic IPO that has the potential to make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
The Musk-led rocket company will hold its first meetings with bankers this week in a process known as a “bake off,” the Wall Street Journal reported. It is a key step before an initial public offering that would rank among the largest of all time.
SpaceX is looking to raise more than $30 billion from public investors at a valuation of about $1.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg.
The company’s chief financial officer Bret Johnsen reportedly told employees on Friday that SpaceX could go public next year – though the exact timing of such a deal and whether it will happen at all remain “highly uncertain.”
“The thinking is that if we execute brilliantly and the markets cooperate, a public offering could raise a significant amount of capital,” Johnsen said in an internal memo, according to the Journal.
If the deal goes forward at that size, Musk’s stake in SpaceX alone would be worth more than $625 billion, while his total fortune would eclipse $930 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
That doesn’t even include Musk’s potential windfall from his recently-approved compensation package from Tesla, which itself is worth $1 trillion if he hits all performance benchmarks.
The Post has reached out to SpaceX for comment.
Johnsen also told workers that SpaceX was a secondary share sale that would set a pre-IPO valuation of $800 billion – entrenching the company as the world’s most valuable privately-held firm and approximately doubling its current valuation.
SpaceX is known for its rocket and satellite launches as Musk works with NASA and the federal government to return US astronauts to the moon. The billionaire has said he eventually wants to establish a colony on Mars.
The firm also offers Starlink satellite-based internet, which supplies high-speed service to remote areas and has notably seen use by Ukraine’s military during the Russian invasion.
In June, Musk revealed on X that he expected SpaceX to generate about $15.5 billion in revenue this year – a number that he said will exceed the entire budget of @NASA next year.”
Musk has also signaled that SpaceX could look to build data centers in orbit in order to backstop his artificial intelligence plans.
