Elon Musk is said to be targeting a mid-June float for SpaceX to coincide with a rare planetary alignment days days before his 55th birthday.
The rocket maker is seeking to raise as much as $50 billion at a valuation of about $1.5 trillion, the Financial Times reported. That would eclipse the $29 billion raised by Saudi Aramco in its 2019 listing, the biggest to date.
Musk, who owns about 42 per cent of SpaceX, is aiming to take the company public shortly after June 8, when Jupiter and Venus will look as if they are side by side in a phenomenon known as a conjunction. His birthday falls on June 28.
The planets will be visible at night as bright points of light separated by roughly the width of a finger held at arm’s length, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.
Last week, several high-profile banks were reported to be lined up for “lead roles” in the listing, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. Bret Johnsen, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, is said to have held “talks and Zoom calls” since December with existing private investors to explore the possibility of a listing in mid-2026, the FT reported.
Musk is no stranger to stunts, having asked his 233 million followers on X this month if he should purchase Ryanair and replace Michael O’Leary, its chief executive, with somebody named Ryan. O’Leary had called Musk an “idiot” during a row over airborne internet access.
Musk also suggested taking Tesla private at $420 a share in 2018, and sought to acquire X at $54.20 a share in 2022. Both figures were references to a slang term for smoking cannabis.
Musk is said to be seeking more funds to support SpaceX’s Starship rocket system, which aims to fly people to Mars. SpaceX has also told investors it wishes to develop technologies to allow data centres to be deployed in space, connected by the company’s network of 9,400 Starlink satellites, as Musk pushes to stay competitive in the AI market.
People gather before the eighth flight test of a SpaceX Starship launch vehicle in March last year
BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES
The company held talks in December over a private share sale, which valued SpaceX at $800 billion. An initial public offering (IPO) could double SpaceX’s valuation.
However, a June IPO could be difficult to achieve, as the company still needs to file the required paperwork to signal its intention to list and arrange a “global roadshow to market the shares”.
There is also a risk that ongoing economic uncertainty, driven by tariff threats and US Federal Reserve interest rate decisions, could hold SpaceX’s IPO “hostage to market conditions”.
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SpaceX, which specialises in deploying reusable rockets and constructing the high-speed Starlink internet network, was forecast to generate an annual revenue of $15.5 billion last year.
SpaceX has been contacted for comment.