SpaceX: What's Behind the Largest IPO in History

In June 2026, SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering in world history. Elon Musk's company raised more than $85 billion, nearly tripling the previous record held by Saudi Aramco ($29.4 billion).

The offering was met with frenzied demand: investors submitted orders 3.5 to 4 times larger than the offering size ($250 billion). By the third day of trading, SpaceX shares had climbed to $218.98 from an offering price of $135 (up 62%), pushing the company's market capitalization above $2.5 trillion.

Why now?

For many years, Elon Musk stated he had no plans to take SpaceX public until flights to Mars became routine. In recent months, however, that strategy has shifted.

A key driver was the company's pivot toward artificial intelligence. Following its merger with xAI and a series of major deals in the AI sector, SpaceX has effectively begun transforming itself from purely a space corporation into a provider of computational infrastructure as well.

The company has announced plans to build massive computing capacity and data centers for AI (including in space). By SpaceX's own estimates, the potential market for such services could reach tens of trillions of dollars. Executing projects of this scale requires enormous amounts of capital, and the IPO allowed the company to raise funds without taking on additional debt.

Another important factor that determined the timing: it was critical for SpaceX to go public ahead of AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic, which are also preparing for their own offerings.

Political considerations played a role as well: asBloomberg notes, it was important for Musk to list before the U.S. midterm elections in November 2026.

What makes investors so confident?

Going public forced SpaceX to disclose its financials: for 2025, the company reported revenue of $18.7 billion and a net loss approaching $5 billion. That means at a market cap of roughly $2 to $2.5 trillion, the market is valuing the company at nearly 100 times annual revenue. For comparison: Tesla trades at a multiple of around 17 times revenue, while many of the largest tech companies trade even cheaper.

That said, SpaceX's current business remains quite uneven. The main growth driver today is the Starlink satellite internet service, whose user base has nearly quadrupled over the past two years. At the same time, space programs and AI projects continue to require enormous investment: AI division losses alone exceeded $6 billion in 2025.

Nevertheless, this hasn't deterred investors. The market is essentially valuing not SpaceX's current financial results, but its potential position five to ten years out. Some analyststhe company's revenue will exceed $200 billion by 2030.