For more than two decades, SpaceX has been the great outlier of Silicon Valley — a company that reshaped entire industries while stubbornly remaining private. Elon Musk has often said that public markets and long-term space missions do not mix well. Quarterly earnings calls, he argued, were a distraction from building rockets, colonising Mars, and reinventing global connectivity.

And yet, here we are.

By late 2025, the question is no longer if SpaceX might go public, but when — and why now.

The IPO That Would Redefine the Market

According to multiple reports from investment banks and financial insiders, SpaceX is preparing for a potential public listing as early as 2026. While no formal filing has been made, discussions with bankers and investors have intensified, alongside a significant insider share sale that pegged the company’s private valuation at around $800 billion.

To put that figure into perspective, SpaceX is already valued more highly than many long-established aerospace giants combined. Some projections suggest a public debut could push the company’s valuation well beyond $1 trillion, potentially making it the largest IPO the markets have ever seen.

This isn’t bravado. It’s maths.

Why SpaceX Is Suddenly Open to Going Public

For years, Musk resisted the idea of an IPO. That resistance has softened for three very practical reasons.

Starlink Has Changed the Equation

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet business, has quietly become one of the fastest-growing connectivity platforms in the world. Millions of users across rural America, Europe, Africa and Asia now rely on it for broadband — from remote villages to ships at sea and military installations.

Unlike rocket launches, Starlink produces recurring, predictable revenue — the kind public markets understand and reward. Analysts increasingly see Starlink not as a side project but as the financial engine that makes a SpaceX IPO viable.

The Cost of Thinking Bigger Than Earth

SpaceX’s ambitions are no longer confined to Earth’s orbit. Starship development, lunar missions, Mars infrastructure, space-based data centres and next-generation launch systems all require capital on a scale that even private fundraising struggles to match.

An IPO could raise $25 billion to $30 billion or more in one move — money that would dramatically accelerate timelines Musk has spoken about for years.

A Window in the Markets

After a long lull, global IPO markets are showing signs of revival. Exchanges are openly courting mega-listings, and institutional investors are hungry for rare, category-defining companies with genuine growth narratives.

There are few businesses on the planet that fit that description better than SpaceX.

What Investors Would Really Be Buying

A SpaceX IPO would not be a simple aerospace play. It would be a bet on multiple industries converging:

• Launch services, where SpaceX already dominates with reusable rockets
• Global communications, via Starlink’s expanding satellite network
• Defence and government contracts, particularly in the US and allied nations
• Future infrastructure, from space logistics to interplanetary transport

In other words, investors wouldn’t just be buying rockets. They’d be buying a platform company — one that operates above the atmosphere but impacts life below it every day.

The Risks Musk Knows All Too Well

None of this comes without trade-offs.

Going public would subject SpaceX to unprecedented scrutiny — from regulators, politicians and shareholders alike. Disclosure rules could complicate sensitive government contracts. Market volatility could clash with Musk’s famously long time horizons.

There is also the cultural question: can a company built on first-principles thinking and controlled chaos thrive under public-company discipline?

Musk himself has acknowledged these tensions in the past. Any IPO, insiders suggest, would be carefully structured to preserve long-term control and minimise short-term pressure.

What Happens Next

For now, SpaceX remains private. No prospectus. No roadshow. No bell-ringing date.

But the direction of travel is clear.

As Starlink scales, as capital needs grow, and as markets reopen to bold ideas, SpaceX is inching closer to a moment it once tried to avoid. If and when it happens, the listing won’t just be about raising money—it will mark a turning point in how humanity funds its push beyond Earth.

For investors, it could be a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

For Musk, it may be a necessary compromise on the road to Mars.