Elon Musk has signaled plans to soon seek a public stock listing of SpaceX, confirming a report that links the strategic shift to a near-term need for more capital.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla among other ventures, described as “accurate” a report in online publication Ars Technica outlining the controversial billionaire’s embrace of a public listing as a way to access capital to finance the building of artificial intelligence data centers in space.
Ars Technica characterized the embrace of an IPO as a “major change in thinking” for Musk, who had previously resisted a public listing for SpaceX.
His comment comes on the heels of recent reports in US media that SpaceX stands poised in 2026 or 2027 for a record-setting initial public offering valuing the company at $1.5 trillion.
Musk had previously opposed an IPO for SpaceX because “he has not enjoyed the public scrutiny of Tesla, and feared that shareholder desires for financial return were not consistent with his ultimate goal of settling Mars,” wrote Ars Technica senior space editor Eric Berger in a December 10 article.
“As usual, Eric is accurate,” Musk posted later Wednesday on X, another part of the tech mogul’s business empire.
SpaceX is moving ahead with an IPO that would seek to raise “significantly more than $30 billion,” Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
The Bloomberg story said Musk and SpaceX’s board advanced plans for the listing in recent days, adding that the IPO could launch as soon as mid-to-late 2026 but could lapse into 2027.
The potential public offering comes as the company anticipates a heavy increase in revenues tied to its Starlink telecommunications business.
Some of the funds raised through the IPO are expected to go to developing space-based data centers, including purchasing chips needed to run them, Bloomberg reported.
Advocates of space-based data centers say the industrial sites could tap into the Sun’s energy and would be easier to cool than land-based facilities.
An obstacle to deploying servers in space has been the cost of getting them into orbit, but advocates of the technology say launch prices may fall by the mid-2030s.
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© Agence France-Presse
