SpaceX filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1 for an initial public offering that would value the company at $1.75 trillion. [1] Within 48 hours, Bloomberg reported the target had been raised above $2 trillion. [2] Reuters confirmed SpaceX could raise as much as $75 billion in the offering, more than three times the record set by Saudi Aramco's 2019 IPO. [3] The listing is targeted for June 2026.

The numbers are so large that they require context to parse. At $2 trillion, SpaceX would debut as one of the ten most valuable companies on Earth, roughly the size of Meta. [4] At $75 billion raised, the offering would dwarf every previous IPO by a factor sufficient to make the comparison meaningless. Saudi Aramco raised $25.6 billion. Alibaba raised $25 billion. SpaceX would triple the record.

For Elon Musk, whose net worth Forbes estimates at approximately $823 billion, the IPO arithmetic is straightforward. [5] He holds roughly 42 percent of SpaceX. At a $2 trillion valuation, his SpaceX stake alone is worth $840 billion. Combined with his Tesla holdings and other assets, the IPO would push Musk past $1 trillion in personal wealth — making him the first trillionaire in human history, a milestone that Fortune's April 2 headline stated plainly. [6]

What SpaceX Actually Is

The company that filed on April 1 is not the rocket company that launched its first Falcon 1 in 2008. SpaceX absorbed Musk's AI venture xAI in an all-stock deal completed in February 2026, valuing the combined entity at $1.25 trillion — with SpaceX standalone at roughly $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. [7] The IPO is for the merged company.

The revenue underpinning the valuation comes primarily from Starlink, the satellite internet service that Bloomberg Intelligence projects will generate $15.9 to $24 billion in 2026 revenue. [8] The launch business adds several billion more. SpaceX generated approximately $16 billion in total revenue in 2025 with $7.5 billion in EBITDA. [9] These are real numbers. Unlike many pre-revenue space startups that have gone public via SPAC and subsequently collapsed, SpaceX is profitable.

But the valuation multiple is staggering. At $2 trillion on roughly $20 billion in projected 2026 revenue, SpaceX would trade at 100 times sales. [4] For comparison, Nvidia trades at roughly 25 times revenue. Meta at 7 times. The market is pricing SpaceX not for what it earns today but for what it might become — the infrastructure company for both orbital communications and AI compute, including the reported ambition to build data centers in space.

The X Divide

The reaction on X was immediate and split. One camp treated the filing as a validation of Musk's vision, posting rocket launch footage and celebrating the scale. "THIS IS MASSIVE," wrote investor Evan Luthra, noting the $75 billion raise target. [10] Bloomberg's own account posted the $2 trillion target as breaking news. [11]

The other camp questioned the timing and the multiple. Steven Fiorillo, who covers large-cap stocks, calculated the implied valuation at more than 100 times 2025 revenue and called it a premium reserved for "the most ambitious bet in capital markets history." [12] @Teslaconomics placed SpaceX's revenue-to-valuation ratio alongside Meta's and noted the gulf between them. [4] The underlying tension: Musk is monetizing SpaceX at a moment when his political entanglements through DOGE, the war, and his proximity to the administration have made him radioactive to a segment of consumers and investors. The SpaceX brand has remained mostly insulated from the Tesla boycotts and the political controversies. An IPO puts that insulation to the test.

The Largest Offering in History

The mechanics of raising $75 billion are themselves unprecedented. A traditional IPO sells roughly 5 to 10 percent of a company to public investors. At $75 billion on a $2 trillion valuation, SpaceX would sell roughly 3.75 percent — or it would sell more at a lower valuation, or some combination of primary and secondary shares. The precise structure has not been disclosed, and the confidential filing means the S-1 details are not yet public.

What is known: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan are leading the offering. [1] The target is a June listing, which gives the banks roughly two months to complete the roadshow and price the deal. The secondary market for SpaceX shares — which traded at valuations implying roughly $1.25 trillion before the filing — has already repriced upward.

The IPO would also resolve a long-standing problem for SpaceX employees and early investors who hold illiquid shares. SpaceX has conducted periodic tender offers, most recently at a $350 billion valuation in late 2024. The jump from $350 billion to $2 trillion in eighteen months is the kind of revaluation that creates enormous paper wealth — and an enormous incentive to sell.

Musk has said he wants SpaceX to remain focused on its mission to make humanity multi-planetary. He has also said he wants to be the world's richest person. On Tuesday, the SEC filing suggested he will get both.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco