Elon Musk’s SpaceX to raise more than $25 billion in blockbuster 2026 IPO, source says

By Echo Wang, Manya Saini and Juby Babu

Dec 10 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise more than $25 billion through an initial public offering in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket maker’s valuation to more than $1 trillion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The company’s move toward a public listing, which could rank among the largest global IPOs, has been largely driven by the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite internet business, including plans for direct-to-mobile service and progress on its Starship rocket program for missions to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX has started talks with banks about launching the offering around June or July, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential information.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Talks about a listing plan are unfolding against the backdrop of a resurgence of the IPO market in 2025 after a three-year drought.

Top Wall Street executives expect the momentum to continue through 2026, fueled by a pipeline of high-profile companies preparing to test investor demand.

“SpaceX represents one of the most exciting opportunities in the global IPO market and has been on several investors’ dream lists for years,” Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket, told Reuters.

“It is a genuine growth industry, with space technology seen as a key frontier both in defence, satellite proliferation and in wider technology infrastructure, the growth of orbital data centres.”

BLOCK LIST

Several large startups have stayed private longer and continued to raise capital in private markets, and the listing of a company like SpaceX could prompt more of them to opt for public offerings.

SpaceX ranks as the world’s second most valuable private startup after ChatGPT maker OpenAI, according to data from Crunchbase. OpenAI and rival Anthropic are also reportedly in talks for an initial public offering (IPO) next year.

“If all these deals go through, the US IPO market will experience a real revival, the green shoots of which have already been seen this year,” Kerr said.

News of the possible IPO comes days after a media report that said SpaceX is launching a secondary stock sale that would value the rocket maker at $800 billion. However, Musk dismissed the report, calling it inaccurate.

Saudi Aramco is the only full IPO to achieve a valuation of over $1 trillion. The state-owned oil and natural gas giant debuted in December 2019 with an estimated market capitalization of $1.7 trillion.

SpaceX hopes to use funds from the public listing to develop space data centers, including purchasing the chips needed to run them, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the possible terms of the offering.

SPACE RACE

Several billionaires and private companies are fueling a new space race in the United States, pouring money into rockets, satellites and lunar missions, including SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

With NASA increasingly reliant on commercial partnerships and defense spending increasing, the space industry is becoming a high-risk arena for technological dominance, national security, and economic opportunity.

Still, doubts about Musk’s ability to manage multiple public companies valued at more than $1 trillion could keep investors cautious, analysts said.

“SpaceX could be one of the most divisive stocks to join the market in years,” Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, told Reuters.

“If SpaceX were to go afloat, expect increasing pressure on Musk to commit to just one of his listed entities: Tesla or SpaceX. It’s hard to see how one individual could run two trillion-dollar-plus companies at the same time.”

(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York, Juby Babu in Mexico City and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Arun Koyyur)