SpaceX files for IPO that could make Elon Musk a trillionaire
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced plans to go public in the US and allow people to buy and sell shares of the company on the stock market.
SpaceX builds rockets, offers a satellite internet service called Starlink, and also owns Musk’s controversial artificial intelligence (AI) firm xAI.
The initial public offering (IPO) on the U.S. stock exchange would be the largest IPO in Wall Street history and could launch next month under the symbol SPCX.
Due to the shares he will have in SpaceX, the IPO could make billionaire Musk, currently the richest person in the world, a trillionaire.
SpaceX is valued at $1.25 trillion, and Musk owning a majority stake in the company means his stake could be worth more than $600 billion.
Musk, who is also the boss of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, became the first person to reach a net worth exceeding $500 billion last year.
This means a SpaceX listing could push his total net worth over $1 trillion.
The filing offers a long-awaited look at SpaceX’s finances.
Last year, Space Exploration Technologies (formally) generated revenue of $18.6bn (£13.8bn) but suffered a net loss of $4.9bn.
It generated sales of $4.7 billion in the first three months of this year but net profit of less than $4.3 billion.
Meanwhile, its balance sheet shows it has $102 billion in assets, such as rockets and other equipment, but also $60.5 billion in liabilities.
SpaceX also flagged expected legal costs of more than half a billion dollars, with a long list of claims.
Some of this comes from “numerous lawsuits” in which chatbot Grok, made by xAI, was allegedly used to create sexualized deepfakes of real women and girls.
Musk has said he plans to dissolve xAI and pursue its AI ambitions under SpaceX.
SpaceX also owns social media app X, formerly known as Twitter, which Musk acquired in 2022.
Other ongoing lawsuits against SpaceX listed in the IPO include claims of patent infringement, claims of non-compliance with EU content control, claims of music copyright infringement and claims of data breach.
AI rivals
In the application made on Wednesday, the financial terms of the agreement SpaceX recently made with Anthropic, the developer of Claude, an artificial intelligence rival, were also announced.
Anthropic will pay $15 billion a year to gain access to data centers in South America for Musk’s xAI, which was recently acquired by SpaceX.
While Musk’s AI ambitions flounder amid a series of controversies, SpaceX’s rocket business and Starlink are considered leaders in the industry; both have a comfortable lead over the competition.
The IPO filing comes just days after Musk lost a high-profile legal battle against rival artificial intelligence company OpenAI and its boss Sam Altman.
