SpaceX to offer insider shares for record $800 billion | Luck

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors at its Texas star base on Thursday, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as early as late next year, one of the people said.

Another person briefed on the matter said the price being discussed for the sale of some employees’ and investors’ shares is more than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at $750 billion to $800 billion. The company would not raise any funds from this planned sale, although a successful bid at that level would catapult it past the record $500 billion valuation OpenAI hit in October.

Elon Musk denied on Saturday that SpaceX is raising $800 billion in cash, without addressing a Bloomberg report about a planned insider stock offering.

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and conducts regular share buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity to employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his X social network.

The sale price for the shares being discussed would be a substantial increase from the $212 per share set in July, when the company raised money and sold $400 billion worth of stock. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times previously reported an $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite and wireless television company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier deal to sell about $17 billion worth of wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

Sign up now: The Business of Space Newsletter indoor NASAkey industry events and trends.

The world’s most productive rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people into orbit.

SpaceX is also a leader in providing Internet service from low Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

Elite group

SpaceX is among an elite group of companies with the ability to raise more than $100 billion in funding while delaying or denying plans to go public.

The company’s $800 billion IPO would push SpaceX into another limited group — the 20 largest public companies, a few rungs below Musk’s Tesla Inc.

If SpaceX were to sell 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion in shares — the largest IPO ever, well above the $29 billion that Saudi Aramco listed in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller portion than most publicly traded firms.

An IPO would also expose SpaceX to the volatility of a public company versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense IPOs see mixed reception in 2025. Shares of Karman Holdings Inc. have nearly tripled since their debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have fallen by double-digit percentages since their debut.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of ​​spinning off the SpaceX Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first floated in 2020.

However, Musk has publicly questioned the prospect over the years, with CFO Bret Johnsen saying in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something more likely to happen “in the coming years.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, reported separately on Friday that SpaceX had told investors and representatives of financial institutions that it was seeking an IPO for the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read more: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called IPO, or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, gives investors in closely held companies like SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working on developing its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed, to carry a huge number of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to the moon and eventually Mars.