SpaceX appears to be heading toward a public offering sooner rather than later, and the latest comments from Elon Musk all but confirm it. Responding to a post by Ars Technica’s Eric Berger on X, Musk simply said, “As usual, Eric is accurate,” after Berger shared his report detailing why SpaceX now plans to go public in 2026. Coming from Musk, that’s as close to a confirmation as it gets.
The timing is notable. Just last week, reports surfaced that SpaceX was preparing a secondary share sale at an eye-watering $800 billion valuation, which would make it the most valuable private company on Earth. Musk denied that SpaceX was seeking fresh financing — but did not dispute the valuation itself.
Now, a SpaceX IPO appears to be in motion. According to reporting from Ars Technica, Bloomberg, The Information, and The Wall Street Journal, SpaceX is targeting a valuation in the $1.5 trillion range for its debut, potentially raising more than $30 billion. That would put it on track to rival Aramco’s IPO in 2019, the largest ever recorded.
The shift is driven by the rise of artificial intelligence. Musk, who now leads xAI in addition to Tesla and SpaceX, reportedly sees the convergence of AI, robotics, and space infrastructure as inevitable — and extremely capital-intensive. SpaceX is already planning to build data-center-class AI satellites and ultimately construct satellite factories on the Moon to mass-produce AI-optimized hardware.
The company’s momentum also makes this an opportune moment. SpaceX continues to break its own launch records, most recently with another milestone Starlink mission. Starlink itself remains SpaceX’s largest revenue stream at the moment, with millions of customers worldwide and new offerings like “Starlink Mobile,” a satellite-to-phone service the company appears to be exploring, on the horizon.
With annual revenues projected to exceed $22 billion next year, SpaceX is already operating at a scale few private companies ever reach. But the ambitions Musk is outlining — orbital data centers, lunar manufacturing, and a full-blown race to lead global AI infrastructure — require a level of capital that only public markets can sustain.
A SpaceX IPO next year would be historic, but it would also mark a new strategic chapter for Musk: using SpaceX not just to reach Mars, but to dominate the AI frontier from low-Earth orbit to the lunar surface.
