Musk aims to raise SpaceX to 1.8 trillion with its stock market debut

BarcelonaElon Musk seeks to break down the doors of Wall Street. In an update to the IPO prospectus of his technology giant, SpaceX, the world's richest man has specified that it will issue 555 million shares at a unit price of $135. In this way, Musk's space and artificial intelligence insignia seeks to add about $75 billion to its capital, an amount that would consolidate it as the largest initial public offering (IPO, the technical name for a company's stock market debut) in history, surpassing that of the oil company Saudi Aramco in 2019, which raised just over $29 billion.

The offer could climb to $86.25 billion, as the various entities acting as guarantors of the operation could sell about 83 million additional shares for this value. SpaceX's stock market debut ceiling, therefore, would be around $1.8 trillion, slightly above the minimum valuation of $1.75 trillion that Musk had proposed in the initial prospectus.

With this operation, the South African magnate would have full control of the technology company: according to the document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the North American stock market regulator, the world's richest man would be the holder of more than 82% of class A shares, those that grant political power over the company, and nearly 92% of class B shares, the purely financial instruments.

SpaceX, therefore, would be confirmed as a "controlled company" and would be exempt from corporate governance obligations, such as filling most of the board of directors' seats with independents or establishing remuneration or appointment committees outside the umbrella of the company's highest body.

The AI race

Although it started as a company dedicated to the aerospace sector, famous for its launchers and global connectivity satellites, SpaceX has become Musk's vehicle in the race for artificial intelligence. Last February, the company integrated xAI, the firm under which Grok operates, the chatbot of the X social network that competes with ChatGPT and Claude. Thus, the South African's will be the first artificial intelligence startup to go to the open market, paving the way for OpenAI and Anthropic to launch their own mega-operations, which will presumably also place them among the most valuable companies in New York.

Anthropic, it should be remembered, presented its initial public offering on Monday, albeit confidentially, only before the regulator. However, the market expects the final valuation of the creator of Claude to exceed one trillion dollars. SpaceX's IPO, however, will be the first thermometer of investor appetite for these brands, and will define capital's attitude towards the rest of the competitors.

Musk "dominates the narrative"

Stock market analysts are observing SpaceX's IPO from a certain distance. XTB firm's expert Javier Cabrera highlights Musk's ability to generate buzz among capital without a particularly solid business foundation. "He has the ability to make investors not be guided by numbers, but by narrative," he warns.

It should be recalled that, in its first financial filing with the SEC, the technology company reported losses of over 4.2 billion dollars; and that the Pretoria magnate has warned that he will neither distribute dividends nor expect profits in any reasonable timeframe. In this regard, Cabrera questions the stability of the company's model, to the point of wondering if it is "a giant with feet of clay".

For their part, Renta 4 analysts point to the role that index funds will play in the shape that demand from potential shareholders will take. In the event that SpaceX can access the S&P500, the benchmark index of the New York Stock Exchange, and not just the Nasdaq —the technology one—, index funds, which invest in companies according to their participation in a selective index, would generate automatic demand of about 20 billion dollars. With the IPO ceiling at 86 billion, experts warn that the offering would be small, and therefore, "the stock would experience a strong rally in the first few days".