Elon Musk has spent over two decades saying SpaceX would stay private. That stance may be cracking, with a source telling reporters the company plans an IPO to raise $75 billion at $135 per share.
If the numbers hold, it would be the largest stock market debut on record.
Saudi Aramco's Record In The Crosshairs
The current record belongs to Saudi Aramco, whose 2019 listing pulled in roughly $29 billion at the peak of oil's run.
A $75 billion SpaceX raise would more than double that haul, reflecting years of built-up demand for SpaceX shares that public investors have had no way to access.
For comparison, Alibaba's 2014 listing of $25 billion held the IPO crown before Aramco took it. Aramco posted hundreds of billions in annual revenue at the time, while SpaceX's reported 2025 revenue is closer to $18.67 billion.
At $135 per share, the math implies SpaceX would float roughly 556 million new shares - a sizable chunk for a single offering.
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Why Musk's Position May Be Shifting
Musk's resistance was simple: public market pressure would push SpaceX toward short-term profits instead of long-term goals like reaching Mars.
Two recent shifts may have changed his math. Starlink - SpaceX's satellite internet business - has reportedly turned profitable, while the company's private valuation has climbed to record highs near $1.25 trillion following its merger with xAI.
Starlink now reportedly serves more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, turning what was once a heavy cost center into a real revenue engine for the company.
A cash-generating business paired with record private demand makes an IPO far more attractive than it was even a year ago. It also gives early employees and investors a long-awaited path to cash out.
The broader IPO market has been thawing this year after a long drought, with AI rivals OpenAI and Anthropic reportedly forging ahead with public listings of their own. A successful SpaceX debut could pull more late-stage private companies off the sidelines.
What To Watch
Nothing is official yet, with the $75 billion figure and $135 share price coming from a single source that SpaceX hasn't publicly confirmed.
If the deal lands at those numbers, it would reshape how investors access private tech giants. The "stay private forever" pattern followed by SpaceX, OpenAI, and Stripe could start to crack, opening the door for more mega-IPOs to follow.
Risks to the deal are real. Musk's track record of unpredictable announcements means the IPO could be delayed or restructured before it ever reaches the SEC.
Investor appetite at $135 per share also assumes broader market conditions hold through the filing window, which can stretch for months.
The next signal to watch is whether SpaceX files an S-1 with the SEC, the formal step that turns a rumored IPO into a real one.
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