The Most Important SpaceX IPO Filing Is (Likely) About
May 5, 2026
It’s been a history-filled year on Wall Street — and we still have eight months to go! In addition to the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.41%) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.19%) recently catapulting to fresh all-time highs, we’ll likely witness some of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) ever on Wall Street.
Artificial intelligence (AI) large language model developers OpenAI and Anthropic are contemplating going public before the year’s end with valuations in the neighborhood of $1 trillion. But the star of the show is Elon Musk’s space infrastructure and AI conglomerate SpaceX, which is expected to command a valuation of $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion. The $75 billion SpaceX aims to raise would more than double the $29.4 billion Saudi Aramco raised with its December 2019 IPO.
Image source: Getty Images.
SpaceX officially put the ball in motion on April 1, when the company confidentially filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since this filing, SpaceX has held closed-door meetings with select Wall Street analysts and institutional investors that outlined its long-term growth strategy.
While seemingly every investor is waiting for Musk’s SpaceX to pinpoint its official stock market debut, there’s a far more important filing that’s (likely) about two weeks away: its registration statement (also known as an S-1 filing).
A company’s S-1 is a lengthy prospectus that allows investors to examine every nook and cranny. It provides income and cash flow statements, balance sheets, and relevant risk factors for the company. While Reuters reported in January that SpaceX generated an $8 billion EBITDA profit in 2025 on $15 billion to $16 billion in sales, this doesn’t tell us much about Musk’s potential $2 trillion company.
The income statement will be of particular interest. Since the year began, SpaceX acquired AI start-up xAI in an all-stock deal. And don’t forget, xAI acquired social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for $33 billion in March 2025. The sum of SpaceX’s parts now includes reusable rockets/spacecraft, satellite broadband (via Starlink), xAI, and X. It’ll be interesting to see how aggressively investors value SpaceX, relative to its cumulative sales.
Likewise, SpaceX’s risk factors warrant a close read. Several of the company’s operating divisions are highly capital-intensive, with products or services that may be prone to delays. Expecting SpaceX’s sales to go parabolic without any potholes or speed bumps along the way would be a mistake, based on what history tells us.
Although the presumed soon-to-be-largest-ever IPO hasn’t set a specific date for its S-1 to become public, SEC rules have narrowed the timeline for when that should happen.
Regulators require that companies release their registration statements to the public at least 15 days before marketing/roadshow events commence. With SpaceX reportedly targeting the week of June 8 to kick off its roadshow, the week of May 18-22 (about two weeks from now) would satisfy this SEC rule.
Though this timeline remains subject to change, arguably the most important filing from the largest IPO in history is likely right around the corner.
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