Elon Musk’s SpaceX has raised 75 billion US dollars (£56 billion) ahead of its record-breaking 1.8 trillion US dollar (£1.3 trillion) US stock market debut on Friday, positioning it as the largest flotation of all time.
The float could also make Tesla and X owner Mr Musk – already a billionaire – the world’s first paper trillionaire and cement his position as the richest man on the planet.
In a filing with America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SpaceX confirmed the float price of 135 dollars (£100.65) for shares, with 555.6 million being sold.
It will mean SpaceX is set to be valued at 1.77 trillion (£1.3 trillion) dollars when trading kicks off later on Friday, and it will make the history books as the biggest ever initial public offering (IPO), eclipsing that of former record holder Saudi Aramco when it raised 25.6 billion dollars (£19.1 billion) in its listing on Riyadh’s stock exchange in 2019.
But the value of SpaceX shares could rise or fall once publicly traded on Nasdaq, and there are concerns over the firm – which is still making a loss – being over-valued amid a tech IPO frenzy.
AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic have both revealed plans to float in recent weeks as the industry’s race to go public enters full swing.
SpaceX is offering an unusually high proportion of shares in the float to smaller retail investors – at up to 30% – alongside large institutional players. Usually 5% to 10% of IPO shares go to retail investors.
In the UK, 2.7 million shares have been pre-allocated to British investors, according to the firm handling UK retail subscriptions. It said 61% of British retail investors had received a full allocation of shares, with those applying for up to 2,700 dollars’ worth (£2,013) getting the full amount, while those applying for more than this saw allocations scaled back, with a maximum allowed at 1,000 shares each.
It is thought the overall float has been at least four times over-subscribed.
Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at the Wealth Club, said: “Elon Musk likes to make a splash in everything he does, but he may not soak the markets in rocket fuel this time around, with more scepticism surfacing about the reality of his long-term ambitions.
“Retail investors who will make up 30% of buyers are buying into his big dreams of space domination despite the risks surrounding his vision.
“SpaceX’s ambitions are stratospheric and potentially transformative, but they are also highly capital-intensive and dependent on technological breakthroughs and regulatory approvals.
“The coming weeks and months are likely to see volatility hit the stock, which often happens post-listing – and is highly likely given the mega valuation.”
The blockbuster equity raise will help SpaceX launch 100,000 next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit as part of aims to deploy AI data centres in space. But much of the firm’s space business centres around its mammoth Starship rocket and its ability to be fully reusable and sturdy enough for a quick turnaround between flights.
Meanwhile, the IPO prospectus filed last week said the firm’s biggest potential market is the sale of business-oriented AI products, though there is uncertainty over the path to profitability for its xAI business, which merged with SpaceX earlier this year.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said there are worries over SpaceX’s sky-high valuation. She said: “It is priced at 56 times future revenues, which is a huge multiple.
“2025 revenue came in at 18.67 billion dollars (£14 billion), up a third on 2024, but the company still posted a loss last year of 4.94 billion dollars (£3.7 billion).
“This year, total revenue is expected to come in at 25 billion dollars (£18.8 billion), a decent jump on 2025, but it is revenue forecasts further in the future that are problematic.”
