SpaceX files confidentially for IPO on day Nasa launches first moon mission in half a century
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s reusable rocket and space exploration company, chose the day of Nasa’s Artemis II lunar mission, the first crewed flight to the moon in more than 50 years, to file confidentially for what could become the largest initial public offering in history.
The company submitted its filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, with Bloomberg News reporting it is targeting a June listing and expects to raise up to $75 billion.
SpaceX was most recently valued at $1.25 trillion but its valuation is reportedly on track to reach $1.75 trillion ahead of the offering, putting it on par with Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company.
The company is considering a dual-class share structure that would give insiders including Musk additional voting rights, and is also weighing an unusually large retail investor allocation that could account for more than 20% of the offering, double the typical proportion.
Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service launched in 2019, is reported to generate the majority of the company’s profits and is expected to be central to the IPO valuation story.
Proceeds will partly fund orbital data centres, which Musk believes will deliver artificial intelligence computing more cheaply than ground-based facilities.
