SpaceX IPO: Elon Musk may become trillionaire as his space exploration company files to go public

New York:

Elon Musk's space exploration company has confidentially filed preliminary paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AP quoted two sources familiar with the filing as saying. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to talk publicly about the confidential registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year as several investment banks have lined up to help raise tens of billions. The amount raised is expected to fund Musk's ambitions to set up a base on the moon, put data centres the size of several football fields in orbit and possibly one day send a man to Mars.

IPO likely to make Musk the world's first trillionaire

The blockbuster offering is likely to be the biggest-ever public offering and could make its founder the world's first trillionaire.

Exactly how much SpaceX plans to raise has not been disclosed, but the figure is reportedly as much as USD 75 billion. SpaceX did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Offering likely in June

The offering is likely to come in June. It could value all the shares of SpaceX at USD 1.5 trillion, nearly double what the company was valued in December when some minority owners sold their stakes, according to research firm Pitchbook.

In addition to building reusable rockets to launch astronauts and payloads into orbit, SpaceX owns Starlink, the world's largest satellite communications company.

The company also recently bought two other Musk businesses, social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and his artificial intelligence business, xAI.

Musk vows to put data centres in space

Elon Musk has vowed to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets - and once again, he's taking on long odds. The world's richest man said he wants to put as many as a million satellites into orbit to form vast, solar-powered data centres in space - a move to allow expanded use of artificial intelligence and chatbots without triggering blackouts and sending utility bills soaring.

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