SpaceX is preparing for one of the most anticipated financial events in history. According to people familiar with the deal, Elon Musk’s rocket company has officially selected Goldman Sachs to lead its upcoming initial public offering. This move puts Goldman in the “lead left” position on the company’s prospectus. Morgan Stanley will take the second spot, followed by a powerful group of banks including Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase.
The company could make its official prospectus public as soon as this Wednesday. This follows a confidential filing SpaceX submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month. The market expects the offering to raise a record-shattering amount of money. Musk recently merged SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in February, pushing the total valuation of the combined company to an eye-watering $1.25 trillion.
This scale is almost impossible to compare with past stock market debuts. In the entire history of U.S. stock exchanges, only two technology companies—Facebook and Alibaba—managed to reach a valuation of $100 billion after their very first day of trading. Last week, the AI chipmaker Cerebras hit the Nasdaq and closed with a market value of about $95 billion. While that was a massive success, SpaceX is aiming for a level of wealth that is ten times higher.
The move to go public comes at a frantic time for the AI industry. SpaceX wants to hit the market before other AI leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic, which private investors currently value at nearly $1 trillion each. Analysts expect those firms to pursue their own public offerings later this year. By getting there first, SpaceX hopes to capture the primary attention of investors who are desperate to put their money into the booming artificial intelligence trade.
For Elon Musk, this high-profile paperwork release comes at a tense moment. Just days ago, he suffered a stinging defeat in an Oakland federal courtroom. Musk sued his former partner, Sam Altman, and the company OpenAI in 2024, claiming they betrayed their original nonprofit mission. On Monday, an advisory jury sided with OpenAI, ruling that Musk waited too long to file his lawsuit. The judge immediately adopted the jury’s verdict, effectively ending the case. Musk dismissed the loss as a “calendar technicality” and promised to file an appeal.
Despite the courtroom drama, Musk is no stranger to the public markets. He famously took Tesla to the Nasdaq back in 2010. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs led that offering as well, with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan also playing key roles on the filing. That original Tesla deal helped turn Musk into the richest person on earth, and he clearly feels comfortable relying on the same group of banks to manage his space empire today.
The transition to a public company brings huge pressure. SpaceX will no longer be able to hide its internal business secrets from the public. Every rocket failure, satellite delay, or personnel shift will now affect the share price instantly. Investors will expect a clear roadmap for how a company worth $1.25 trillion plans to grow in an economy where even a 1.5% drop in interest rates can change a company’s borrowing power overnight.
If the offering successfully raises even a fraction of the expected billions, it will solidify Musk’s position as the primary architect of the new space and AI economy. The company currently dominates the global launch market, and by integrating xAI’s software into its satellite network, it aims to control the digital infrastructure of the future. With the paperwork expected to drop this week, all eyes on Wall Street will focus on the final numbers.
