Elon Musk’s SpaceX has revealed plans to go public in the US, allowing investors to trade shares of the company on the stock market.
The listing could make Musk, already the world’s richest person, the world’s first trillionaire because of the SpaceX shares he owns.
The initial public offering (IPO) could take place next month under the ticker symbol SPCX. Reuters reported that SpaceX is targeting a Nasdaq listing around June 12 and could raise about $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion.
SpaceX makes rockets, operates the Starlink satellite internet service, and owns Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI. The company also owns X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The provided report said SpaceX values itself at $1.25 trillion, and Musk’s majority ownership could make his stake worth more than $600 billion.
Last year, Musk, who also leads Tesla, became the first person to reach a net worth above $500 billion. The SpaceX listing could push his total net worth above $1 trillion.
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The IPO filing gives a long-awaited look at SpaceX’s financial position.
Space Exploration Technologies, the company’s official name, reported $18.6 billion in revenue last year and a net loss of $4.9 billion, according to the provided report. In the first three months of this year, the company recorded $4.7 billion in sales and a net loss of $4.3 billion.
The balance sheet shows $102 billion in assets, including rockets and other equipment, while debt stood at $60.5 billion.
AP reported that SpaceX lost $2.6 billion in operating losses last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, while Starlink generated $4.4 billion in operating income.
Ruth Foxe Blader, managing partner at US venture capital firm Citrine Venture Partners, told the BBC that it was “not shocking” for a project like SpaceX to remain loss-making at the IPO stage.
She said the planned listing was expected but still “extremely exciting.”
She added that SpaceX is a large and wide-ranging project with many selling points that point to the future.
SpaceX also flagged more than half a billion dollars in expected legal costs linked to several claims.
Some of those cases involve multiple lawsuits alleging that Grok, the chatbot made by xAI, is being used to create sexualized deepfakes of real women and underage girls.
Other ongoing cases listed in the IPO filing include patent infringement claims, claims of noncompliance with EU content moderation rules, music copyright infringement claims, and data breach claims.
Reuters previously reported that SpaceX warned in its filing that investigations into sexually abusive AI imagery could create legal, regulatory, and market access risks for xAI.
Musk has said he plans to dissolve xAI and pursue his AI ambitions under SpaceX.
The filing also revealed the financial terms of a deal between SpaceX and Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude.
Anthropic will pay $15 billion a year to access data centers in the American South for xAI, which was recently acquired by SpaceX, according to the provided report.
SpaceX’s filing also lists OpenAI and Anthropic among competitors as the company expands further into AI. The Guardian reported that SpaceX’s prospectus identifies major AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, as key competitors.
The IPO filing comes days after Musk lost a high-profile legal battle against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman.
Musk had accused Altman of breaching a nonprofit contract by shifting OpenAI toward a for-profit structure after Musk had donated millions of dollars.
The jury unanimously threw out the case, finding that Musk waited too long to file his 2024 lawsuit.
At trial, Musk told jurors that xAI was small compared with OpenAI, which is also expected to sell shares to the public soon.
SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is set to launch this week. However, the company has also faced scrutiny over worker safety at its facilities.
Musk has also been criticized for his right-wing politics and alignment with US President Donald Trump, with whom he traveled to China last week.
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