How Elon Musk’s SpaceX IPO could make him the world’s first trillionaire – Firstpost

SpaceX has formally opened the door to what could become the most consequential stock market debut in history.

The aerospace and technology company founded by Elon Musk filed paperwork on Wednesday (May 20, 2026), to go public on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “SPCX”.

The filing provided investors with the deepest look yet into SpaceX’s finances, growth plans and artificial intelligence ambitions.

The IPO is expected to be the largest ever attempted on Wall Street, potentially overtaking the 2019 debut of Saudi Aramco.

If SpaceX secures the valuation range discussed in the filing and by market analysts, Musk’s ownership stake alone could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars, pushing his overall fortune past the $1 trillion mark.

How Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire

Although the filing itself does not confirm a final valuation target, market estimates connected to the deal place
the company’s expected value between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion.

At that level, SpaceX would immediately become one of the most valuable corporations in the world by market capitalisation.

Musk currently controls approximately 43 per cent of the company’s shares and is expected to retain around 85 per cent voting power after the listing. That structure would preserve his near-total influence over company decisions even after public investors buy into the stock.

Based on a valuation near $1.75 trillion, Musk’s SpaceX holdings could be worth more than $750 billion. When combined with his large stake in Tesla and other assets, the IPO could elevate his total wealth beyond $1 trillion.

The figures represent a dramatic revaluation of SpaceX compared with its previous private-market assessments. Prior funding rounds had valued the company at roughly $180 billion to $210 billion.

A successful IPO at nearly ten times those levels would trigger one of the largest paper-wealth increases ever recorded.

Estimates of Musk’s personal wealth have fluctuated sharply in recent weeks. Forbes recently estimated his net worth between $807 billion and $839 billion, while Bloomberg News valued it at approximately $667 billion earlier this week.

Even with those differences, the projected IPO valuation would substantially increase Musk’s lead over every other billionaire globally.

The company is expected to raise between $75 billion and $80 billion through the offering, making it not only the largest tech IPO ever attempted, but potentially the largest public listing in financial history.

More than 20 major global banks are involved in organising the deal. Goldman Sachs is leading the offering, with Morgan Stanley also playing a central role.

Morgan Stanley previously helped oversee Tesla’s public debut in 2010 and has maintained close ties with Musk’s businesses over the years.

SpaceX also plans to allow retail investors to participate in the IPO through platforms including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi and E*TRADE.

How SpaceX evolved from a rocket company into a tech empire

SpaceX continues to operate one of the world’s most dominant rocket businesses, launching satellites, cargo and astronauts for commercial customers as well as government agencies such as Nasa and the US Department of Defense.

SpaceX argues in the filing that
its fully reusable Starship system is central to its future growth. The company says Starship’s ability to dramatically lower launch costs creates the foundation for much larger ambitions involving communications, logistics and orbital infrastructure.

The Starship programme alone has already cost the company approximately $15 billion in development spending, according to the filing. An updated version of the megarocket is expected to launch this week.

Musk has repeatedly argued that fully reusable spacecraft will fundamentally reshape access to space by making launches cheaper and more frequent.

SpaceX also continues to frame Starship as essential for future lunar missions and long-term Mars colonisation efforts, although Musk has recently moderated some of his earlier public rhetoric regarding Mars timelines.

Beyond rockets, SpaceX’s most commercially successful operation is now Starlink, the company’s rapidly growing satellite internet network.

Starlink has become one of the largest satellite connectivity providers in the world, particularly in rural and underserved regions where traditional broadband infrastructure remains weak.

The filing revealed major growth in the service’s user base. One set of company figures showed Starlink subscribers increasing from 2.3 million in 2023 to approximately 8.9 million in early 2026.

Another section of the filing indicated the service had crossed 10.3 million subscribers globally, more than double the previous year’s total of around 5 million.

The expansion has generated enormous revenue growth for the company. Starlink reportedly produced $11.4 billion in revenue during 2025 while generating roughly $4.4 billion in operating income. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, the business generated another $3.2 billion in revenue.

However, the filing also noted that average revenue per subscriber has declined as the company expands internationally and introduces lower-priced service plans in emerging markets.

Starlink’s international growth accelerated while Musk was involved in the US government last year. During that period, the company secured agreements with multiple foreign governments and telecommunications firms to expand overseas operations.

How Musk’s AI ambitions moved inside SpaceX

Earlier this year, SpaceX absorbed xAI, the artificial intelligence company behind the Grok chatbot. Musk later announced plans to fully dissolve xAI as a standalone entity and place all of its AI operations under SpaceX’s control.

According to details disclosed in the filing, the transaction internally valued SpaceX’s core aerospace operations at roughly $1 trillion while assigning a separate $250 billion valuation to the AI business. Together, those figures became part of the justification for the company’s broader IPO valuation target.

The filing also outlined how SpaceX intends to merge its satellite network with future AI infrastructure projects.

The company says it plans to build data-processing systems in low Earth orbit, using space-based conditions to reduce some of the energy and cooling limitations facing terrestrial AI infrastructure.

SpaceX believes orbital facilities could benefit from direct solar energy access and naturally cold environments in space.

The filing additionally revealed a major commercial agreement between SpaceX and Anthropic, the creator of Claude. Under the arrangement, Anthropic will reportedly pay $15 billion annually to access data centre capacity connected to Musk’s expanding AI ecosystem.

Despite those ambitions, the filing acknowledged that xAI remains a relatively small player compared with dominant firms in the industry.

Earlier this week, Musk
suffered a legal defeat in his high-profile case against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman. Musk had accused OpenAI of abandoning its original non-profit mission after transitioning toward a for-profit structure despite his earlier financial contributions.

A jury unanimously rejected Musk’s claims after concluding that he had waited too long to pursue the lawsuit.

During the trial, Musk reportedly acknowledged that xAI remained much smaller than competitors such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

How SpaceX is incurring heavy losses

SpaceX generated approximately $18.6 billion in revenue during 2025, representing growth of roughly 33 per cent from the previous year.

Yet despite those revenues, the company remains deeply unprofitable. The filing showed that SpaceX recorded a net loss of about $4.9 billion in 2025.

Losses continued into the current year, with the company reporting another $4.3 billion net loss during the first three months of 2026 despite generating roughly $4.7 billion in sales during the quarter.

Those losses largely reflect the enormous capital intensity of the company’s operations.

SpaceX continues to invest aggressively in launch systems, Starship development, satellite deployment, AI infrastructure and data centre projects. The company’s long-term strategy depends heavily on large upfront spending in sectors that may take years to fully monetise.

Its balance sheet showed roughly $102 billion in assets, including launch infrastructure, satellites, rockets and related equipment. However, it also disclosed approximately $60.5 billion in debt obligations.

The filing identified heavy capital expenditure as one of the biggest risks facing the company going forward. Investors are expected to closely monitor whether SpaceX can eventually turn its rapidly expanding businesses into consistent profitability.

The company also said its broader operations across connectivity, AI infrastructure and space logistics represent a combined potential market worth approximately $28.5 trillion.

How SpaceX is dealing with mounting controversies

One of the most prominent concerns involves investigations into Grok, xAI’s chatbot product. The filing said the technology is facing numerous investigations and inquiries related to nonconsensual sexualised deepfakes involving real women and girls.

The company warned investors that the investigations could lead to liability, financial penalties, reputational damage or other sanctions.

SpaceX also disclosed expectations for more than half a billion dollars in legal expenses linked to ongoing cases and investigations.

Additional disputes mentioned in the filing include patent infringement lawsuits, data breach allegations, music copyright claims and accusations related to noncompliance with European Union content moderation requirements.

Musk’s social media platform X is also part of the broader SpaceX structure. According to the filing, SpaceX’s consumer offerings — including X Premium and SuperGrok subscriptions —
had approximately 6.3 million paying subscribers as of March 2026.

The filing repeated Musk’s long-running ambition of turning X into an “Everything App” that combines social media, payments, commerce, communications and banking services within a single platform.

Musk has also faced criticism for his support of far-right political causes, controversial public statements and close alignment with US President Donald Trump.

Only last year, Musk faced nationwide protests at Tesla dealerships connected to his role leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Critics also targeted his promotion of conspiracy theories and political rhetoric online.

The filing also arrives as SpaceX faces scrutiny regarding workplace safety. A worker at a Texas facility reportedly died last week after falling from scaffolding, according to earlier reporting cited in coverage surrounding the IPO.

Previous investigations by Reuters also documented hundreds of worker injuries at SpaceX facilities that had allegedly gone unreported publicly.

Those concerns add to questions about whether SpaceX’s aggressive development pace places excessive strain on employees and operational systems.

Nevertheless, the company remains far ahead of most competitors in commercial launch capability. SpaceX currently dominates the global heavy-launch market and continues to secure multi-billion-dollar government contracts tied to defence and national security operations.

Its leadership in reusable rocket systems and satellite deployment has given the company a substantial advantage over rivals attempting to compete in the rapidly expanding commercial space sector.

With inputs from agencies