SpaceX heads into IPO with 'deepest moat that exists' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'

SpaceX heads into IPO with ‘deepest moat that exists’ as investors vow to ‘never bet against Elon’

The biggest IPO ever is just a few weeks away as reports say SpaceX has accelerated its timeline for coming public, and investors are cheering the company’s lofty ambitions.

Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite giant, which recently merged with his AI startup, expects to price its IPO as soon as June 11, with a trading debut on the Nasdaq due to follow the next day under the ticker SPCX, sources told Reuters.

Before that, SpaceX could file publicly for the IPO as early as Wednesday, with a roadshow kicking off on June 4, the report said. The prior timeline put the IPO near the end of June.

The company had already filed confidentially and is seeking to raise up to $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion. That would surpass the current record holder for the biggest IPO ever: Saudi Aramco, which $29 billion raised at a $1.7 trillion valuation in 2019.

Since its founding in 2002, SpaceX has taken over the market. It claimed more than 80% of global rocket launches last year and has over 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, providing space-based internet connections to businesses and militaries.

SpaceX is a top launch provider for NASA and the Pentagon, which is also looking to the company to help develop President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile-defense shield.

“It’s a truly unique business with the deepest moat that exists today,” an investor told the Financial Times. “This company launches over 90% of Western payload into space each year. It’s like if you own the only undersea cable from the U.S. to Europe, it’s the only way you can get internet.”

At the same time, SpaceX has proposed an unprecedented governance structure that would give Musk nearly unchecked executive power, according to Reuters. And the only person who could fire Musk as CEO is Musk himself.

SpaceX seeks to achieve this via super-voting Class B shares, mandatory arbitration, and stricter rules on shareholder proposals.

Some changes are tied to ambitious milestones, such as awarding Musk as many as 200 million class B shares if the company reaches a $7.5 trillion valuation and builds a colony on Mars with 1 million human inhabitants.

Another would give Musk 60 million more shares if the valuation hits $6.6 trillion and SpaceX deploys a network of space-based data centers with 100 terawatts of computing capacity.

A Tesla roadster launched from the Falcon Heavy rocket with a dummy driver named “Starman” in 2018.

SpaceX via Getty Images

But the biggest U.S. public pension systems sent a letter to SpaceX this week objecting to “the most management-favorable governance structure ever brought to the U.S. public markets at ⁠this scale,” Reuters reported.

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, investors stand to reap a massive windfall and don’t seem to be pushing back against the governance changes.

“I am not saying our investment process is to just give him money for anything he wants,” a venture capitalist who backed X, xAI and SpaceX told the FT. “But to be honest that wouldn’t have been a bad strategy: never bet against Elon.”

Another investor pointed out Musk’s compensation is directly tied to SpaceX’s accomplishments. While the CEO is notorious for setting and missing highly ambitious goals, many have come to fruition eventually.

A Tesla compensation package valued at $158 billion similarly incentivizes Musk and could result in a $1 trillion payout for hitting several milestones.

“We could all argue whether one should make that much money,” the SpaceX investor told the FT. “But the reality is, if he creates these gigantic companies, I’m personally totally fine with it.”

In fact, SpaceX grew its revenue by more than 30% last year to $18.7 billion, but swung to a loss of $4.9 billion as xAI’s losses deepened to $6.4 billion. Starlink more than doubled its profit to $4.4 billion.

The business could become more complex as it reached an agreement last month for the right to acquire AI coding start-up Cursor for $60 billion. SpaceX is also competing for a NASA contract to land humans on the moon later this decade.

The SpaceX IPO comes as Musk appears to have repaired his relationship with Trump after a dramatic falling out last year over the president’s tax-and-spending bill.

Musk accompanied Trump on his visit to China this week, along with several other top CEOs, and the billionaire recently made some political contributions to Republicans ahead of the midterms elections in November.