The $2.5 trillion space invasion coming to Wall Street

Wall Street is about to have the biggest float in its history: Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Here’s what you need to know.

Elon Musk’s reusable rocket company, SpaceX, will list on US markets on Friday, US time, in what is expected to be the largest initial public offering in history. The company is targeting a value of about $US1.77 trillion ($2.5 trillion).

An initial public offering (IPO) is the first time shares in a private company are made available to the public via the stock market. Following the Wall Street success of Musk’s electric car company Tesla, expectations are running high for SpaceX. Investor interest is reportedly four times the planned offering, meaning the IPO has attracted up to $US250 billion of investor demand, Reuters has reported.

Owning a stake of more than 40 per cent in the company, Musk is poised to officially become the world’s first trillionaire when SpaceX starts trading. He is not the only one set to cash in. There is a long list of executives and early investors poised to make billions, while The New York Times reported that more than 4000 current and former SpaceX employees are set to become instant millionaires.

SpaceX essentially remade the space launch industry through the successful roll-out of reusable rockets. This has structurally lowered the price of a launch, making space a viable option for a slew of new businesses.

Musk anticipates the growth of a new space economy, claiming in his sales pitch to the public that SpaceX’s “mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary”. The company is still unprofitable.

Before the IPO, SpaceX acquired Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence company. XAI had acquired X (the former Twitter) in 2025. Now Musk wants to build solar-powered data centres in orbit, which will be able to power artificial intelligence computing. Its stated mission includes understanding “the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars”.

SpaceX expects to sell 555.6 million shares at $US135 a share; this will value the company at about $US1.8 trillion, on track to outpace the IPO of Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco in 2019, which was valued at $US1.7 trillion. SpaceX’s IPO price will value the company at nearly 100 times the company’s sales.

SpaceX will trade on Nasdaq and Nasdaq, Texas (yes, Texas now has its own Nasdaq exchange). Nasdaq has shortened the amount of time a share needs to trade before being included in its indexes from three months to 15 days. Combined with the $US1.77 trillion valuation, SpaceX will be so big