Musk's SpaceX is targeting an IPO in 2026. The startup's price is now close to a record high

Elon Musk's space company SpaceX intends to hold an IPO in the second half of 2026, sources told The Information. According to them, such terms the company calls investors and representatives of financial institutions, reports Reuters. SpaceX is considering an initial public offering of the entire company, including Starlink, its satellite internet division, The Information's sources said. The possibility of an IPO in 2026 was also reported by one Bloomberg source.

Information about the IPO came amid reports from sources Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal that SpaceX is preparing a secondary sale of shares, in which the company could be valued at up to $800 billion, writes Reuters. With such a valuation, SpaceX would surpass artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, which in September completed raising investment at a record $500 billion valuation for a non-public company, Bloomberg noted. SpaceX would also be worth more than half of Tesla in this case, even though its revenue is only a sixth of the electric car maker's sales, MarketWatch added. Both companies are led by billionaire Elon Musk.

According to one of Bloomberg's sources, SpaceX is preparing to sell shares to insiders at a price of about $400 per paper, which implies a total value of the company of about $750 billion to $800 billion. According to WSJ, SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen informed investors about the pending insider stock sale. The details of the offer were discussed Thursday, Dec. 4, by SpaceX's board of directors, but could still change depending on the interest of sellers and buyers or other factors, according to some Bloomberg interlocutors.

A SpaceX spokesman did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. The potential $800 billion valuation is double the $400 billion at which shares were offered in a secondary stock sale in July, the WSJ noted.

SpaceX is now the leading player in the space launch market: Falcon 9 rockets regularly deliver cargo and people into orbit. In 2024, SpaceX conducted 134 Falcon launches, setting a world record for the number of space missions per year. In 2025, the company expects to surpass this achievement and perform up to 170 launches. Now SpaceX is focused on the development of Starship - the most powerful rocket in history, which the head of the company Elon Musk plans to use to deliver cargo and people to the Moon and Mars.

The Starlink division operates the largest satellite constellation in low Earth orbit - more than 9,000 satellites, well ahead of competitors' networks, including Amazon's Project Kuiper. In November 2023, Musk said Starlink had reached breakeven cashflow, recalls Reuters. In June this year, SpaceX CEO said that the Starlink division is the main source of revenue for the company. At the end of 2025, SpaceX expects revenue of $15.5 billion, Musk said then.

Starlink continues to aggressively expand its satellite constellation. A month ago, telecom provider EchoStar agreed to sell $2.6 billion worth of spectrum licenses to SpaceX, adding to the previous deal worth about $17 billion. Following news of the secondary sale of SpaceX shares and its possible IPO, EchoStar's shares soared 18%, setting a new value record, and ended main trading on December 5 with a 10% increase.

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