What's behind Musk's surprise SpaceX IPO decision?

SpaceX has started a regulatory quiet period, a sign the rocket company is getting serious about going public in 2026, people familiar with the matter said.

The company sent a message to workers telling them to stop talking about the planned stock market listing. Staff got instructions to avoid discussing things like how fast SpaceX is growing or what it’s worth, based on Securities and Exchange Commission requirements, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

Workers can’t post about it on social media, do interviews, or speak at conferences and events, one person explained. That person asked not to be named since the details aren’t public yet. SpaceX didn’t respond when asked for comment.

The space company wants to raise more than $30 billion in the offering. That would put SpaceX’s value at around $1.5 trillion, making it the biggest stock debut ever as reported by Cryptopolitan previously.

A company memo seen Friday laid out why SpaceX wants to go public next year. The money would pay for a massive number of launches for its Starship rocket that’s still being developed, space-based data centers for artificial intelligence, and a moon base.

But the timing and valuation aren’t set in stone. SpaceX said it might not go through with it.

What does a quiet period really mean? Quiet periods happen before stock offerings. Companies have to stop making statements that could pump up the stock price.

Sources close to Musk told Ars Technica that the shift comes as he sees major opportunities in AI technology. The 54-year-old billionaire got involved with artificial intelligence back in 2015 when he helped start OpenAI. After disagreements with his partners there, he launched his own AI company called xAI in 2023.

Getting money from the stock market in the next year and a half would give Musk a big pile of cash to use at SpaceX for AI projects. The company wants to change its Starlink satellites to work as data centers floating in space. Musk wrote on his social media site X in late October that “SpaceX will be doing this.”

His bigger dream goes even further. “The level beyond that is constructing satellite factories on the Moon and using a mass driver (electromagnetic railgun) to accelerate AI satellites to lunar escape velocity without the need for rockets,” Musk posted on X over the weekend.

SpaceX expects to bring in somewhere between $22 billion and $24 billion next year. That matches NASA’s yearly budget, though SpaceX uses money much better than the government does. Still, building satellites and launching rockets for space data centers costs a fortune.

Abhi Tripathi, who worked at SpaceX for many years, thinks the IPO decision happened when Musk figured out Starlink could become data centers in space. “That is the moment an IPO suddenly came into play after being unlikely for so long,” Tripathi said.

Musk started SpaceX back in 2002 to eventually put people on Mars. He still wants that, seeing AI and robots as tools to help build Mars settlements. Getting Mars ready would need roughly 1,000 ships and 10,000 rocket launches, costing $1 trillion just for launches.

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