'A bit scary': SpaceX tells investors it aims to raise $75bn in IPO - FT

The management of aerospace company SpaceX, headed by Elon Musk, has added $25 billion to the planned size of the IPO, increasing by one and a half times the final target of the already largest offering in history, the Financial Times reported, citing sources. Musk's level of control over the parameters and timing of the upcoming listing looks completely atypical for the market, which alarms investors.

SpaceX's top executives at a private meeting with investors on Wednesday announced plans to raise about $75 billion in an initial public offering, FT sources claim. They say SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is now targeting a valuation of his aerospace company at around $1.75 trillion, with only five publicly traded US companies having a higher market value. Musk's influence on the scope and timing of the listing is highly unusual, said one investor close to a banker involved in the deal. "It's a bit scary how Elon sets the price, it's done informally," he admitted.

The organizers of the offering are considering allowing existing shareholders to fully close their positions on the first day of trading, two sources told the FT. This would remove restrictions preventing insiders from cashing out and trading securities for 180 days after the company goes public. A third source said SpaceX is considering a so-called staggered lock-up period that would allow early investors to gradually sell off their stakes over several months. This is "too big an IPO to just lift the restrictions" on selling, he said.

SpaceX has not yet filed a draft prospectus with U.S. regulators, but may do so in the coming days as it aims to go public by June to coincide with Musk's birthday and the convergence of Jupiter and Venus.

The major U.S. exchanges Nasdaq and NYSE are changing their listing rules to accelerate the inclusion of large companies that have recently gone public in their indices. As a result, new issuers with high market capitalization will be able to get into the bases of calculation of the Nasdaq 100 and NYSE 100 on the procedure of "rapid entry" soon after the IPO, without waiting for the annual planned rebalancing, writes FT.

In addition, Nasdaq plans to cancel the basic requirement for companies with the largest capitalization of the minimum volume of shares in free float (free float) at the level of 10%. This innovation will allow such giant companies as SpaceX, which is going to place less than 5% of its shares, to qualify for inclusion in the index, the publication notes. AI startups Anthropic and OpenAI, whose valuation during the latest rounds amounted to $350 billion and $730 billion respectively, have also outlined plans to go public in 2026.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor