SpaceX is aiming to file its initial public offering prospectus with regulators later this week or next week, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans. The confidential filing will formalize the IPO plans for Elon Musk’s rocket and telecom company as it targets a June public listing.
The offering will test investor appetite for what is gearing up to be the biggest U.S. IPO of all time—by a wide measure. Advisers involved in the preparation predict the company could try to raise more than $75 billion in the IPO, higher than a previously reported estimate of $50 billion, according to the person. The company, last valued at $1.25 trillion, won’t decide the actual size of the offering and a valuation until a few weeks before the IPO.
Such a large deal would surpass all money raised by U.S. IPOs last year, according to Renaissance Capital. SpaceX’s filing may show it losing money after absorbing Musk’s AI firm, xAI, for $250 billion last month. But many investment firms are reluctant to bet against Musk, who has a devoted fan base of individual investors.
Musk has been especially committed to allowing individual investors to buy into the IPO, said the person. For typical IPOs, banks typically limit 10% of shares sold in the IPO to individual investors. But with SpaceX, this portion is expected to be considerably higher. The individual investor portion might exceed 20%, but the percentage has yet to be finalized, said two people involved in the deal. These individuals could include smaller investors who buy shares through brokerages such as Robinhood, as well as wealthy clients of banks.
The company will not have the standard six month lockup period that is typical for most IPOs. That rule prevents insiders from selling shares all at once, depressing a stock price. SpaceX has raised so much money—an estimated $10 billion—over its two decades as a private company that its advisers want to prevent a massive dump of shares. The custom arrangement is still being sorted out, the person added.
Bankers from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Citi have all been preparing the IPO plans, even though they haven’t been officially hired. SpaceX has discussed dividing up roles among the investment banks, where each bank focused on different tasks, The Information previously reported.
The pitch to institutional investors is expected to focus primarily on three themes: its space launch business, which has become a stable driver of income; its fast-growing Starlink satellite internet business; and its prospects as a provider of orbital data centers. Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter and now part of SpaceX, and XAI is not expected to play a major role in the pitch to public investors, said the person.
