SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) is being lined up. Four investment banks have been named by the FT to handle the blockbuster float which is widely reported to be likely to end up with SpaceX valued at some $1.5 trillion (€1.2tn) – the largest ever public float.

The named banks are Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, with a 2026 IPO anticipated, perhaps as early as mid-year.

In the past Elon Musk has said that SpaceX was better off staying in private hands and thus not liable for the onerous quarterly reporting obligations which came with a formal stock market listing.

The speculation now is that the prospects of space-based AI data centres as well as further development of SpaceX’s giant Starlink ‘journey to the Moon and Mars’ vehicle needing extra cash.

Indeed, Musk, speaking at the Davos Economic Forum on January 22nd, stated that building AI centres in space, and driven by solar power, was a “no brainer”. He added that in a few years SpaceX would be launching solar-powered satellites.

“For data centres in space to be viable, you need costs to go down significantly,” commented Ivana Delevska, founder and chief investment officer of Spear, and portfolio manager of the Spear Alpha exchange-traded fund as reported by Barron’s financial news. That’s what SpaceX’s huge rocket system Starship is offering. More capacity and full reusability can take launch costs from, say, $3,000 per kilogram to $300 per kilogram.

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Categories: Blogs, Business, Inside Satellite, IPO

Tags: elon musk, IPO, Morgan Stanley, spacex