The forthcoming stock market debut of SpaceX is being hailed as potentially the most monumental in history, with anticipation running high.
Founder Elon Musk stands on the brink of becoming the world’s first trillionaire, as his innovative company prepares to go public in the United States next month.
Already established as the wealthiest individual globally, Musk has recently unveiled details of his enterprise that encompasses rockets, satellites, and artificial intelligence. This disclosure aims to sway both institutional investors and everyday shareholders to invest in his forward-thinking company, all while he maintains a firm grip on its control.
At 54, Musk is renowned for defying odds, and his latest endeavor is no exception. If successful, SpaceX could achieve a valuation of $1.75 trillion, shattering the previous record for an initial public offering held by Saudi Aramco, the oil behemoth.
However, Musk’s grand vision extends far beyond these financial milestones.
Regulatory filings have disclosed a series of bold plans, including ventures into space tourism, asteroid mining, lunar cargo transportation, and the establishment of a Mars colony housing at least one million people.
So should you climb on board and invest in what promises to be the investment ride of a lifetime – one that could either reach for the stars or crash and burn?
Details of Musk’s extraordinary plans are contained in the SpaceX prospectus – a warts-and-all legal document that spells out the opportunities and risks for potential investors.
Significantly, it begins with a quote from Musk himself outlining his messianic vision.
‘You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that’s what being a space-faring civilisation is all about,’ he says.
‘It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.’
Elon Musk values SpaceX at at $1.75trillion, although others think this should be lower
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral to deliver equipment and supplies to the International Space Station
The filing doesn’t yet say how much new money SpaceX wants, give a date for when the shares start trading or at what price the new shares will be valued.
These details will be revealed next month but analysts reckon Musk is seeking up to $75billion from outside investors to bankroll his extra-terrestrial dreams – or, as some might say, fantasies.
To raise such a huge amount involves telling an investment story like no other – and SpaceX doesn’t disappoint.
At times it borders on science fiction.
Musk believes relying on a ‘single planetary home… carries an existential risk’.
He says: ‘By moving beyond the only home we have ever known, we ensure species-level redundancy and the light of consciousness will not be tied to a single planet… We do not want humans to have to have the same fate as dinosaurs.’
SpaceX claims to have identified a potential market worth $28.5trn which is ‘the largest… in human history,’ according to the filing.
The sum is not far short of the entire annual output of the US economy – and for good measure this doesn’t even include opportunities that may arise with China or Russia.
‘We believe that space represents the largest economic frontier in human history,’ the filing states. ‘Our innovations and technological advancements are redefining industries on Earth, while we aim to create new ones on the Moon, Mars and beyond.’
What’s most surprising is that the vast majority of this potential revenue would come from its AI unit – a recently formed business that SpaceX admits ‘is still being fully integrated’, ‘operates in a rapidly evolving industry’ and is ‘subject to significant… risks’.
Founded in 2002, SpaceX is best known as a rocket company.
Since 2020 its Starlink internet-from-space business has seen almost 10,000 satellites launched by a fleet of reuseable rockets and spacecraft into low-earth orbit to cover the globe and substantially cut mobile ‘dead-zones’.
Starlink now has more than ten million subscribers in 163 countries.
In 2025 it generated income of $4.4billion – more than double the previous year – on sales 50pc higher at $11.4billion.
SpaceX has entered the space tourism industry with its Crew Dragon spacecraft
Since 2020 SpaceX’s Starlink internet-from-space business has seen almost 10,000 satellites launched
These formed the bulk of SpaceX’s total revenues of $18.7billion last year.
Its space unit, which includes a contract with Nasa to re-supply the International Space Station, makes up most of the rest.
With the top line growing by around a third in each of the last two years, SpaceX is on track to become a $24billion turnover company by the end of this year.
But its big bet on AI has plunged SpaceX back into the red after making a $791million profit the previous year.
It made a net loss of $4.9billion last year after investing heavily in a sector where SpaceX lags market leaders such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, taking total accumulated losses to more than $41billion.
SpaceX recently bought xAI, Musk’s start-up best known for its ‘truth-seeking’ Grok chatbot, taking its total debts to $29billion.
AI already devours the lion’s share of spending on Space X’s networks, with almost $8billion gobbled up in the first three months of this year alone.
At least some of that will be recouped after Anthropic agreed to pay SpaceX $15billion a year between now and May 2029 to lease space in both of its flagship Colossus data centres that power the AI revolution.
Musk’s big idea is to relocate Earth-bound data centres into orbit where they will be powered by ‘the virtually limitless power of the Sun’ but cooled by the vast emptiness of space.
Orbital AI computer satellites are expected to be launched as early as 2028.
SpaceX recently bought xAI, Musk’s start-up best known for its ‘truth-seeking’ Grok chatbot, taking it total debts to $29billion
‘We have unmatched launch capabilities to enable deployment at scale,’ the prospectus contends, while admitting orbital AI compute ‘is an incredibly difficult technical challenge’.
It is not the only one.
The obligatory ‘risk factors’ section of the 277-page filing runs to 37 pages.
Warnings include: ‘Manufacturing, testing and launching rockets, satellites, and spacecraft, including our efforts to reuse rockets and spacecraft, involve inherent risks that could result in human injury or death.’
Or as Sir Richard Branson famously put it after his Virgin Galactic rocket crashed on a test flight over the Mojave desert, killing one of its pilots: ‘Space is hard.’
Perhaps the biggest risk factor is Musk himself.
Here, the prospectus pulls no punches.
‘We are highly dependent on the continued service and performance of Mr Musk, whose leadership, vision and expertise are critical to the development of our technologies and the execution of our business strategy. Mr Musk has been, and continues to be, a driving force behind our growth, innovation and operational success,’ it enthuses.
But the filing goes on to warn: ‘The loss of Mr Musk, whether due to death, disability or otherwise, or his inability or unwillingness to continue in his current roles, could significantly disrupt our management structure, adversely affect our ability to execute our strategic plans, and negatively impact our reputation and relationships with customers, partners and other stakeholders.’
The world’s richest man will continue to run Tesla, where his 20pc stake in the electric carmaker is valued at $260billion, although experts think it is only a matter of time before it is folded into SpaceX.
Even that holding pales by comparison with how much Musk’s SpaceX stake could be worth in next month’s flotation.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently values SpaceX at $1 trillion, based on the value of xAI in a recent funding round before the two companies were combined by Musk.
He already owns and controls the company through a dual-class share structure that gives him 85pc of the combined voting power – meaning Musk cannot be removed as chairman or chief executive.
His overall net worth would rise to an incredible $1.1trillion if SpaceX is priced at $2trillion, according to financial data firm Bloomberg
Even at a valuation of $1.75trillion, Musk would still reach the unprecedented trillionaire milestone when combined with his Tesla holding and stakes in other companies.
And there’s more.
His SpaceX stake includes an option on one billion super-voting B shares that pay out if SpaceX hits various stock market valuation milestones from $500billion up to $7.5trillion – and the company puts at least one million people on Mars.
What’s clear is that barring a last-minute mishap this flotation will cement Musk’s grip on SpaceX and his position as the world’s richest ever individual.
His legion of adoring followers would have it no other way.
ANNE ASHWORTH: How you can invest in SpaceX
While Elon Musk is set to become the world’s first trillionaire there could be rich rewards too for private investors.
But experts warn there is no guarantee SpaceX will go to infinity and beyond.
Susannah Streeter of the Wealth Club says that the SpaceX initial public offering is part of a Musk master plan to build ‘a mega artificial intelligence (AI) conglomerate’ with the scale to rival the Silicon Valley giants such as Meta, owner of Instagram and WhatsApp and Microsoft.
But she warns that ‘gravity could pull valuations back down to earth’.
Musk wants the support of private investors for the flotation – which means that 30 per cent of the shares may be reserved for ordinary people who want to hitch a ride into space,
You can register an interest in applying for SpaceX shares in next month’s flotation on investment platforms, like AJ Bell, Interactive Investor and Hargreaves Lansdown.
These platforms will be able to send out alerts in coming weeks, but they cannot, at present, actively promote the offer to their users due to the extremely strict rules on such matters set by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial watchdog.
SpaceX is a holding at a number of UK funds, including Baillie Gifford and Scottish Mortgage
Fortunately for their savers, some British stock market funds were early-stage investors in SpaceX. These funds may opt to hold onto the shares, rather than cash in their stakes at the time of the flotation.
You could opt to put some cash in one or all of these funds. But again there can be no certainty of a bumper payout, and you would also be exposing yourself to risk through the other shares owned by these funds.
SpaceX is a holding at four Baillie Gifford funds: Scottish Mortgage, Baillie Gifford US Growth, Edinburgh Worldwide and Schiehallion.
SpaceX is the largest holding at Scottish Mortgage, which first put capital behind the rocket company in 2018, providing $200million.
Despite its solid-sounding name, this £12.8billion FTSE-100 investment trust is a high-risk tech vehicle, with bets on businesses such as China’s ByteDance, the owner of TikTok.
As a result of its exposure to SpaceX, Scottish Mortgage is seen as a ‘proxy’, that is an easy way to gain access to the SpaceX offer. But the trust’s managers have been keen to tone down expectations, saying they value SpaceX at $1.25trillion, rather than the $1.75trillion that Musk prefers.
SpaceX is the second largest holding at Schiehallion, which also has a slice of Anthropic. But you should only contemplate committing your cash to this trust if you have strong nerves and an appetite for a wager. Why? Because it backs private companies, that is those that are yet to be quoted on the stock market. Some of these companies may turn into stock market stars, but others could fall to earth which makes Schiehallion exciting but also inherently more risky.
RIT Capital Partners, another investment trust, snapped up a stake in SpaceX in 2024. Private companies make up one third of this trust’s portfolio, suggesting it probably suits only those with more of a taste for a gamble.
You may not be a fan of Musk for political or ideological reasons and may therefore be minded to steer clear of SpaceX.
But whatever your view, you may find yourself an unwitting investor.
The company is set to join the Nasdaq index. Your pension fund may automatically invest in passive funds that track this index. And if you have money in global or US general funds, they may take the same approach.
