With a successful initial public offering (IPO), space launch provider SpaceX could achieve a higher market capitalization than Boeing, Airbus, GE Aerospace, RTX, and Lockheed Martin—combined.
SpaceX launched its IPO on Friday, taking the company public after it spent decades securing a stranglehold on the global space launch industry. With an opening stock price of $135 per share and ambitions to raise $75 billion, the company is targeting a $1.77 trillion valuation that would dwarf every major aerospace player.
A successful raise could make SpaceX CEO Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, and about 4,400 employees could become millionaires once they sell stock, per The New York Times.
However, analysts are divided on the legitimacy of the projected $1.77 trillion valuation. Much of that value is speculative—SpaceX grew its revenue in 2025 but still posted a loss of nearly $5 billion last year.
The company has ambitions to ramp up the cadence and payload of its launches in order to establish orbital data centers and routine transportation to the moon. Doing so quickly and cost-effectively will largely hinge on it achieving full reusability of its gargantuan Starship rocket—the most powerful ever built.
Starship made a largely successful twelfth test flight last month, debuting an upgraded Version 3 (V3) configuration after a few months of delays. But the FAA grounded it due to an anomaly with the rocket’s Super Heavy booster, which will keep it sidelined for at least a few weeks—and potentially months.
The initial flights of Starship’s previous Version 2 configuration in 2025 saw the rocket explode and required the FAA to divert aircraft, setting SpaceX’s testing back months.
SpaceX is not the only space launch provider to go public in recent years. Competitor Rocket Lab, a leader in small-lift launches, did so in 2021. Firefly Aerospace, which develops small- and medium-lift rockets and last year became the first private company to successfully put a lander on the moon, went public in August.
Other rivals—such as Blue Origin and Stoke Space—have not indicated plans for an IPO. But SpaceX’s raise may spur competitors to ramp up their own activities.
SpaceX’s Next Phase
SpaceX is already the clear leader in space launch, accounting for 162 of the 205 launches and landings the FAA licensed in fiscal year 2025. The company launched a Falcon 9 rocket minutes before it debuted on stock exchanges Friday morning.
Explosive growth in Starlink satellite deployments—facilitated by the reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets—launched SpaceX to a profitable 2024. But after merging with Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence venture and spending heavily on compute power last year, its coffers took a multibillion-dollar hit.
The key to SpaceX returning value for its investors will be expansion. That means more rockets, more launches, and heavier payloads to accommodate bigger Starlink batches, as well as more airspace closures. The FAA in a January safety alert for operators (SAFO) warned pilots to exercise caution during launch activities due to the potential for cascading debris as operations increase.
SpaceX is building several new launch pads for Starship in Texas and Florida to take full advantage of a launch license that permits up to 25 annual operations. Its V3 Starship is designed to launch 100 metric tons of payload to low-Earth orbit (LEO), and a Version 4 ship could double that capacity, per the company’s S-1 registration statement.
However, Starship test flights have yet to leave Earth, instead remaining in suborbit. Per the S-1, an orbital debut and payload deployment is targeted for the second half of 2026.
The registration statement notes that SpaceX aims to grow by creating “petawatt-scale” orbital data centers using constellations of Starlink satellites. It also hopes to secure more airline customers for its Starlink Wi-Fi offering. The company further intends to establish routine lunar transportation, first through uncrewed cargo flights and later with crewed missions.
Most—if not all—of these ambitions are contingent on SpaceX being able to reuse Starship and reduce mission turnaround time from months to weeks or even days.
Individual Falcon 9 boosters can fly up to 35 times, which has unlocked weekly Starlink deployments and significantly lower launch costs. SpaceX has demonstrated reusability of the Super Heavy booster, using a pair of giant metal chopsticks to snare it from the air over the launch pad. But it has yet to achieve this for Starship, and it has no clear timeline for doing so.
According to SpaceX’s S-1, the company also envisions using Starship to fly passengers to the moon and Mars, offer “space tourism” flights, and even enable point-to-point travel on Earth.
