The biggest stock market debut in history is weeks away. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite giant, has accelerated its IPO timeline and is now targeting a Nasdaq trading debut on June 12th under the ticker SPCX, with pricing expected the day before on June 11th. The company could file publicly for the IPO as early as Wednesday, with a roadshow beginning June 4th.
SpaceX is seeking to raise up to $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion. That would shatter the record currently held by Saudi Aramco, which raised $29 billion at a $1.7 trillion valuation in 2019. The company filed confidentially ahead of the public filing. If the numbers hold, this will be the most significant public market event in a generation.
The case for investing is straightforward and formidable. SpaceX claimed more than 80% of global rocket launches last year. It operates over 10,000 Starlink satellites providing internet connections to businesses and militaries worldwide. It is a top launch provider for NASA and the Pentagon, and is also in the running to help develop President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile-defence shield. As one investor put it, the company is like owning the only undersea cable connecting continents — there is simply no comparable alternative in the Western world.
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The Governance Structure That Has Pension Funds Alarmed
The enthusiasm from private investors has not been universal. SpaceX has proposed a governance structure that would give Musk near-unchecked executive power — one that the biggest US public pension systems have already formally objected to in writing, describing it as “the most management-favorable governance structure ever brought to the US public markets at this scale.”
The structure relies on super-voting Class B shares, mandatory arbitration, and tighter restrictions on shareholder proposals. Under the proposed terms, the only person who can remove Musk as CEO is Musk himself. Bonus share awards are tied to extraordinary milestones — up to 200 million additional Class B shares if the company reaches a $7.5 trillion valuation and builds a Mars colony with one million human inhabitants, and 60 million more shares if it hits $6.6 trillion and deploys space-based data centres with 100 terawatts of computing capacity.
Despite those objections, private investors appear broadly unbothered. SpaceX grew its revenue by more than 30% last year to $18.7 billion. The company swung to a net loss of $4.9 billion as losses from the xAI integration deepened to $6.4 billion — but Starlink, the satellite internet division, more than doubled its profit to $4.4 billion and represents one of the most compelling standalone businesses in technology.
The company’s ambitions continue to expand. Last month, SpaceX reached an agreement for the right to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion. It is also competing for a NASA contract to land humans on the moon before the end of the decade. The merger with Musk’s xAI startup adds another layer of complexity — and potential — to an already extraordinary business.
The IPO arrives as Musk appears to have rebuilt his relationship with Trump following a public falling out last year over the president’s tax and spending legislation. Musk joined Trump on his recent trip to China alongside several other major CEOs, and has made political contributions to Republican candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.
For investors who have been watching SpaceX from the outside for two decades, the wait is almost over. Whether the governance structure gives them pause or not, the fear of missing out on the biggest company launch in stock market history is proving to be a powerful motivator.
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