SpaceX Is Filing for the Biggest IPO in History

The Numbers

SpaceX is preparing to file its IPO registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, targeting a mid-June 2026 public debut, according to reporting by the Financial Times and Investor's Business Daily, as summarized by Reuters and Forbes. The company is seeking a valuation of $1.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion and aims to raise as much as $50 billion in the offering.

To put those figures in context: a $50 billion raise would shatter the previous record of $29 billion set by Saudi Aramco in its 2019 IPO, according to data compiled by Bill Megginson, a professor at the University of Oklahoma who tracks global IPO history. Fortune reported in March 2026 that $50 billion would also surpass the cumulative $44 billion raised through all 90 IPOs that took place in 2025 combined, citing Deloitte data.

At a $1.5 trillion market cap, SpaceX would rank as the second most valuable company ever to go public, behind Saudi Aramco's $1.7 trillion debut valuation. At $1.75 trillion, it would exceed even Aramco, making it the largest company ever to list on a public exchange, according to European Business Magazine.

What SpaceX Is Today

SpaceX generated estimated revenue of approximately $15.5 billion in 2025, up roughly 18 percent year over year from $13.1 billion in 2024, according to analysis by Sacra, a private markets research firm. The company posted an estimated $8 billion in profit on that revenue — measured as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — according to reporting by the Financial Times cited by Futurum Group.

Starlink, the company's satellite-based internet service, accounted for roughly $10 billion of SpaceX's 2025 revenue, according to Sacra. That represents the dominant share of total company revenue and the primary driver of its rapid growth. Sacra noted that Starlink generated $7.7 billion in revenue in 2024, representing 83 percent year-over-year growth at the time.

NASA contracts represent approximately $1.1 billion of SpaceX's total revenue, according to Fintool News, meaning the company's commercial and international business now substantially outweighs its government launch contracts.

The company has also absorbed xAI, the artificial intelligence company that Elon Musk founded, in an all-stock acquisition. xAI, which develops the Grok chatbot and large language models, was valued at $230 billion in its most recent private funding round before the merger, according to Fortune. The combined entity is what would go public.

The Road to Public Markets

Musk had long expressed a preference for keeping SpaceX private, but reporting by Reuters indicated that the company's growing valuation and Starlink's commercial success prompted a strategic shift. SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen held discussions and calls with existing private investors beginning in December 2025 to explore a mid-2026 listing, according to the Financial Times as reported by Reuters.

SpaceX most recently raised private funding at an approximately $800 billion valuation in a secondary share sale in late 2025. The leap to $1.5 trillion or higher in the IPO represents a roughly doubling in stated valuation within months — driven in part by the xAI merger and in part by analyst projections for Starlink's trajectory.

The company is lining up four Wall Street banks to lead the offering, Reuters reported in December 2025 citing a source, with Morgan Stanley seen as a front-runner for a leading underwriting role. At a 2 percent gross spread on $50 billion — a rate Jay Ritter of the University of Florida, a leading IPO scholar, estimated for a deal of this scale — underwriting fees alone would total $1 billion. The lead underwriters are estimated to capture approximately 35 percent of those fees, or roughly $350 million, according to Fortune's analysis of historical IPO economics.

The Listing Exchange and Regulatory Questions

The IPO is expected to list on either the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ, pending regulatory review of the S-1 disclosure, according to Techi.com. The registration is under scrutiny due to the xAI merger and the sensitivity of SpaceX's defense contract portfolio, according to the same report.

SpaceX has not publicly confirmed the IPO timeline or valuation. The company did not respond to Reuters' request for comment at the time of the January 2026 Financial Times report. The filings and final terms remain subject to SEC review and market conditions.

Why This Matters Beyond Wall Street

The SpaceX IPO would give public market investors direct exposure to a company that holds dominant positions in commercial launch, global satellite broadband, and now artificial intelligence — segments that have been effectively inaccessible to non-institutional investors. The IPO would also accelerate Musk's stated ambition to fund a Mars colonization program, with the capital raised expected to fund expansion of Starlink, Starship development, and xAI's compute infrastructure.

Fortune noted that as of the time of its March 2026 report, SpaceX had not yet generated net earnings in its 23-year history on a GAAP basis, despite its EBITDA profits. To justify a $1.5 trillion market cap at reasonable return expectations for shareholders, the company would need to generate net earnings exceeding those of Berkshire Hathaway, Fortune's analysis concluded — a threshold that frames the scale of investor expectations baked into the valuation.

Whether the June timeline holds will depend on market conditions, SEC review pace, and the trajectory of global financial volatility — a factor the Iran war and resulting energy price shocks have injected unpredictably into equity markets throughout early 2026.