SpaceX’s IPO Challenge

Break out the oxygen masks. The number of breathless headlines is about to soar. SpaceX is expected to file its initial IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission any day now. It will be the confidential version, so we won’t get to see it. But what is usually a procedural nonevent for the public has turned into a carnival thanks to the sky-high numbers bankers are throwing around regarding SpaceX’s offering.

Last week, for instance, we scooped the news that SpaceX’s bankers were saying the company could try to raise more than $75 billion. That’s a bonkers number. All of the companies that went public in the U.S. last year raised $77.5 billion between them, according to Dealogic. (And that was a big increase on the $41.4 billion raised in U.S. IPOs in 2024.) And SpaceX isn’t the only company expected to go public this year.