There have been reports recently that Space X was planning to go public next year as a way to raise billions in new funding. That now seems to have been confirmed in several ways. Wednesday a writer at Ars Technica confirmed it and explained why he thinks it’s happening now.
SpaceX is planning to raise tens of billions of dollars through an initial public offering next year, multiple outlets have reported, and Ars can confirm. This represents a major change in thinking from the world’s leading space company and its founder, Elon Musk…
The decision is surprising because Musk has, for so long, resisted going public with SpaceX. He has not enjoyed the public scrutiny of Tesla, and feared that shareholder desires for financial return were not consistent with his ultimate goal of settling Mars.
Musk sees an opportunity to combine his control of access to space with his plan to expand AI. His plan is to put AI data satellites in space: If it could be done, they would have a big advantage in being solar powered and not requiring massive amounts of power (or cooling) here on the ground.
A major additional factor should be considered.
Satellites with localized AI compute, where just the results are beamed back from low-latency, sun-synchronous orbit, will be the lowest cost way to generate AI bitstreams in
And by far the fastest way to scale within 4…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2025
It may sound like science fiction (or the plot to a Bond movie) but Musk has the rockets, the satellites, the AI experience and has already talked about creating a “moonbase alpha” once we return to the moon. So as imaginative as this seems it also seems possible. But it will require a bunch of money to make it happen. And that’s where an IPO could raise billions. Musk’s ultimate goal: Win the AI race.
Abhi Tripathi, a long-time SpaceX employee who is now director of mission operations at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, believes that once Musk realized Starlink satellites could be architected into a distributed network of data centers, the writing was on the wall.
“That is the moment an IPO suddenly came into play after being unlikely for so long,” Tripathi told Ars. “If you have followed Elon’s tactics, you know that once he commits to something, he leans fully into it. Much of the AI race comes down to amassing and deploying assets that work quicker than your competition. A large war chest resulting from an IPO will greatly help his cause and disadvantage all others.”
Foremost among Musk’s goals right now is to “win” the battle for artificial intelligence. He is already attacking the problem at xAI and Tesla, and he now seeks to throw SpaceX into the fray as well. Taking SpaceX public and using it to marshal an incredible amount of resources shows he is playing to win.
It’s a pretty wild idea but also one none of his competitors can touch because none of them own Space X, which the NY Times reports is being valued at $800 billion, making it the most valuable private company in the world.
SpaceX, the rocket and satellite maker run by Elon Musk, told employees on Friday that it would buy insider shares in a deal that would value it at around $800 billion, and said that it was preparing for a potential initial public offering next year.
In a letter to employees, Bret Johnsen, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, said the company planned to buy $2.56 billion of shares from stockholders at $421 a share, nearly double its previous internal share price. Mr. Johnsen also alluded to a possible public offering in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times…
The offer to buy shares from employees would make SpaceX the world’s most valuable private company, outstripping the A.I. company OpenAI, which is currently valued at around $500 billion. If and when SpaceX goes public, it would likely be one of the largest ever public listings, and an enormous wealth creation event for shareholders.
So it sounds like science fiction but he might actually be able to do it, at which point it’s just reality. It’s an exciting time to be alive.
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