Operated up to now as a private business, SpaceX will reportedly be getting an IPO either later this year or in 2027. Coming to the public markets as one of the most valuable IPOs in history, SpaceX could generate the kind of investor enthusiasm that once defined Elon Musk’s other notable business, Tesla. How big will the SpaceX IPO be, and does it look like the newly created SpaceX stock will be a good value?
SpaceX’s Massive Price Tag
Although a definite price hasn’t been arrived for the IPO, the price assigned to existing private shares values the company at $800 billion. Preliminary reports suggest that the IPO could value SpaceX for as much as $1.5 trillion. For a sense of scale, this would assign SpaceX a higher valuation than Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which currently has a market cap of $1.4 trillion. It would also put SpaceX among the most valuable IPOs of all time, though the record would still be held by Saudi Aramco’s 2019 IPO at a little over $2 trillion.
How Much of SpaceX Will Be Sold Off?
SpaceX hopes to raise $30 billion through its IPO, a massive sum that would surpass the $29 billion Aramco raised during its IPO. Roughly 42 percent of the business is owned by Elon Musk, far larger than the 12 percent stake he retains in Tesla. Even assuming the more conservative SpaceX valuation of $800 billion, the stake pushes Mr. Musk’s net worth well above the $600 billion mark. Musk also retains overwhelming control of voting rights. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL) is another major shareholder, while various institutional investors also make up part of the current ownership group. Though accounting for a smaller piece of the business, some of SpaceX’s shares are also owned by executives and employees as part of their compensation packages.
Does the Valuation Make Sense?
One of the most interesting and unusual aspects of the SpaceX IPO is how its valuation stacks up against what we know about the business’s performance. In June of 2025, Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX was on track to generate around $15.5 billion in revenue for the year. At the $800 billion valuation, this would put SpaceX trading at a P/S ratio of about 51.6. The $1.5 trillion price, meanwhile, would translate to a P/S of 96.8. For reference, this would put SpaceX at a similar P/S premium to Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR), widely regarded as probably one of the most overvalued stocks on Wall Street today, which trades for 109.8 times its sales.
It’s also worth noting that, if estimates are correct, the $15.5 billion wasn’t an especially massive increase on what the company achieved in 2024. Analysts put SpaceX’s 2024 revenues at about $13.1 billion, translating to a year-over-year revenue growth rate of about 18.3 percent. Though certainly respectable, this is far from the kind of revenue growth one might normally expect from a stock whose price-to-sales ratio could approach triple-digit territory.
This raises the question of how SpaceX can command a valuation larger even than that of Tesla, a business with trailing 12-month revenues of nearly $100 billion. Though SpaceX has reportedly been generating positive cash flow for quite some time, massive future growth will likely be required to justify the price that will potentially be assigned to the company.
One of the possible growth drivers SpaceX may be leaning on is Starlink, a satellite internet service known for its low latency and ability to provide reliable internet in areas that are typically underserved by traditional internet providers. SpaceX bulls, using assumptions of the service’s eventual ubiquity provided by Musk himself, have made the case for Starlink eventually crossing the $1 trillion mark as a standalone business. Although Starlink saw strong growth in 2025, adding 4.6 million new customers to bring its total customer count to 9.2 million, it’s still likely far from justifying its parent company’s proposed 12-figure valuation.
This brings the valuation back to the potential of long-term space commercialization, an area in which SpaceX has been a definite leader. While there’s little doubt that commercial spaceflight could become much more valuable over the next several years, questions remain about how high SpaceX’s revenues could eventually go, what its margins will be and how long it will take to get there.
Another possible future value creator for SpaceX could be space-based data centers, an idea promoted heavily by Elon Musk. Although data centers in space would enjoy considerable advantages from being able to generate solar power directly and not having to contend with land availability, there are still several practical engineering problems that have to be solved to make them feasible at scale. As a result, revenues and cash flows from space-based data centers could still be many years away and may have to be significantly discounted when considered as part of SpaceX’s current valuation.
Will SpaceX Get a $1.5 Trillion IPO?
Taking what’s known about its current performance into account, the $1.5 trillion SpaceX hopes to be valued at is likely an aspirational target. Even so, an IPO at $800 billion or more would still assign a significant premium to the business. Starting from that valuation, SpaceX and its subsidiary Starlink would have to deliver massive revenue growth going forward to justify the stock’s price tag.
Despite this, it’s entirely possible that shares of SpaceX could surge shortly after the IPO on investor enthusiasm. Elon Musk has long been a magnet for bullish tech investors willing to buy and hold at very high prices on the promise of long-term disruption. IPOs also tend to generate strong investor sentiment, often surging in early trading even when the initial price is relatively high.
While SpaceX may prove to be overvalued at its IPO, the new stock promises to be one of the most exciting developments that could hit the market in 2026. Early volatility could also create interesting opportunities for investors later on, as prices can fluctuate considerably once a business goes public and the market begins to decide on a fair value for its shares.
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