SpaceX launches $75B IPO in largest share sale ever

SpaceX, Elon Musk's space exploration company, is set to launch its highly anticipated initial public offering on June 12, in what will be the largest share sale in history, aiming to raise at least $75 billion and valuing the company at approximately $1.75 trillion. The IPO will offer more than 550 million shares at $135 each on the New York Nasdaq market, giving individual investors—including those in the UK—the opportunity to buy into a company whose ambitions range from satellite communications and space exploration to colonizing Mars, mining asteroids, and establishing AI data centers in orbit. Despite Musk retaining more than 80% of voting power after the sale, the listing would make SpaceX one of America's top ten largest listed firms and potentially transform Musk into a trillionaire. The timing of SpaceX's IPO has cast an unexpected spotlight on EchoStar, a satellite company that appeared destined for bankruptcy just a year ago but has since emerged as an unlikely beneficiary of Musk's space ambitions. EchoStar sold its wireless spectrum to SpaceX for $17 billion in September 2025—$8.5 billion in cash and a similar amount in SpaceX equity—and subsequently acquired additional spectrum worth $2.6 billion, resulting in the company holding roughly 2-3% of SpaceX. This position has sent EchoStar's stock soaring 430% since the beginning of last year, including nearly 375% in 2025 alone, elevating the company to Fortune 500 status at number 302 and making it essentially a publicly traded proxy for SpaceX. However, financial analysts urge caution amid the enthusiasm. SpaceX's own prospectus reveals the company had $18.6 billion in revenue last year but posted a net loss of $4.9 billion, acknowledging "a history of net losses" with no guarantee of future profitability. Morningstar analyst Nicholas Owens estimates SpaceX's actual value closer to $700 billion, roughly half its IPO target, recommending investors wait until the hype subsides. The SpaceX listing kicks off what analysts are calling an "AI IPO supercycle," with Anthropic and OpenAI also expected to go public this year, each carrying similar risk profiles of massive valuation tied to ambitious but uncertain technological promises.