By Echo Wang
NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to price its initial public offering at $135 per share, selling 555.6 million shares to raise $75 billion in the largest IPO ever, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday that the rocket and satellite communications company hoped to raise at least $75 billion, at a valuation of $1.75 trillion.
The listing leads a wave of high-profile private companies preparing to test public markets after years of muted large-cap IPO activity, with SpaceX widely viewed as one of the most consequential offerings in recent history alongside artificial intelligence giants OpenAI and Anthropic.
The company’s valuation relies on SpaceX dominating technologies and markets that do not yet exist – from Mars missions to AI data centers in space.
The specific target price is extremely unusual at this stage. Instead, companies planning to go public typically set a price range before talking to investors in a series of presentations called a roadshow. SpaceX’s roadshow begins on Thursday.
Usually a target price is not set until the day before the market debut.
The roadshow — expected to be one of the most closely watched IPO marketing tours in recent years — will allow prospective investors to meet with SpaceX executives as investment bankers try to build demand for a record-breaking $75 billion order book.
Reuters previously reported that the company is considering allocating as much as 30% of the offering to individual investors, an unusually large retail tranche aimed at tapping into Musk’s cult-like following and broadening ownership of the company.
Musk will be required to hold his SpaceX shares for 366 days after the IPO, the source said, a signal to investors that he will not be selling any of his investment.
Proceeds of the IPO will be used for purposes including expanding AI computing resources and SpaceX’s satellite network.
SpaceX merged with Musk’s AI startup xAI earlier this year in a deal that valued the rocket company at $1 trillion and the developer of the Grok chatbot at $250 billion.
The company has no direct peers, making valuing the company subject to interpretation. Morningstar placed a $780 billion price tag on SpaceX, 48% below its current private-market valuation, according to a June 1 research note. Most of that comes from its Starlink satellite communications business, which drove most of its revenue, profits and growth last year.
SpaceX, however, has tied most of its growth prospects to AI, and its plans rely on unbuilt technologies for a significant portion of future revenue, including solar-powered data centers in space, as it targets a potential $28.5 trillion market, Reuters previously reported.
(Reporting by Echo Wang; Editing by Peter Henderson, Edmund Klamann and Sonali Paul)
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