SpaceX has filed for what would be the largest initial public offering in history, setting up a landmark listing on the Nasdaq. According to the filing, the company is marketing about 555 million shares at a fixed price of $135 each, seeking to raise roughly $75 billion and pointing to a valuation in the region of $1.77 trillion.
What stood out to market watchers was the decision to go with a single fixed price rather than the customary price range. In most large US offerings, banks pitch investors over several days, gauge demand and then price at the top of a range or above it. Analysts said setting one reasonable price appeared designed to let the market itself bid the stock higher once trading begins.
The numbers represent a steep climb from where the company stood only weeks earlier. The $135 price is about a 28 percent jump from the $105.30 at which private shares were last valued following a five-for-one stock split in mid-May, while the $1.77 trillion figure marks roughly a 40 percent rise from the last private valuation. Earlier discussions had floated valuations as high as $2 trillion to $2.2 trillion.
Bloomberg reporters noted that the offering is expected to price on June 11 and trade thereafter, following a roadshow lasting about six days. Over the coming days, high-net-worth retail investors at major banks are due to receive presentations as part of that process, with the listing widely described as unprecedented in both size and structure.
Much of the investor case rests on a bet on Elon Musk and on future revenue rather than historical results. The filing does not provide forward-looking forecasts, but it hints at significantly higher revenue in the years ahead, including a deal with the artificial intelligence company Anthropic under which SpaceX is set to collect around $1 billion a month for the computing power it provides.
The scale of the deal has drawn in Wall Street's biggest names. JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon is planning to discuss the upcoming offering with thousands of the bank's high-net-worth clients, and five banks are leading the transaction alongside roughly fifteen others. For comparison, the listing dwarfs Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion offering in 2019, previously among the largest on record.
The company's prospectus frames an ambitious long-term story. It cites a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion and describes a business that today launches satellites and generates cash through its Starlink network, but which aims in the future to sell large volumes of software and services. Analysts cautioned that such a wide-ranging market figure is unusual for a filing of this kind.
Bloomberg's coverage highlighted the central roles of chief financial officer Brett Johnson and president Gwynne Shotwell, both described as highly regarded by the investor base and active in the months of preparation leading up to the filing. With the price set and the roadshow under way, attention now turns to how the market responds when the shares begin trading.