SpaceX Has Picked a Date for Its IPO. Here's Everything Investors Need to Know Before What Could be the Biggest IPO Ever

SpaceX will make its public markets debut on June 12, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Few initial public offerings have generated more hype than SpaceX, led by Tesla Founder Elon Musk. Following Cerebras' recent IPO, which soared out of the gate, there's clearly demand in the market right now, particularly for artificial intelligence companies.

Citing anonymous sources, the Journal also reported that SpaceX is hoping to raise $80 billion or more. Other media outlets have suggested the valuation could range from $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion or higher.

Here's everything you need to know about what could be the largest IPO ever.

What does SpaceX do?

One reason there is so much hype around SpaceX is that investors view the company as a pioneer in the space economy.

SpaceX leverages reusable rockets to launch astronauts into space more quickly and efficiently, at lower cost. According to Space Explored, as of June of last year, SpaceX had conducted 18 space missions with astronauts, 11 of which were for NASA.

Image source: Getty Images.

SpaceX is also the parent company of Starlink, a low-Earth-orbit satellite network that provides internet access across the planet, even in areas with limited access to traditional internet infrastructure.

Starlink reportedly already has close to 10,300 satellites in orbit, with the goal to eventually have 42,000 satellites overall. At the end of last year, the company announced it had achieved 9 million Starlink users.

Earlier this year, SpaceX also acquired Musk's AI company xAI, the parent company of the digital AI assistant Grok. The deal, announced in early February, valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion.

Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management previously said on X that he believes SpaceX is the only company building sovereign AI, which essentially means to own the entire AI stack from the intelligence aspect to the chips to the data centers.

It's clear that Musk and other company stakeholders really see SpaceX as the bridge to all space ambitions. For instance, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that SpaceX and Google are discussing the possibility of building data centers in space.

The company has also tied parts of Musk's pay package to the colonization of Mars, an ambition Musk has previously discussed.

What we know about financials

According to the Journal, if SpaceX is going to IPO by June 12, it might have to file a registration statement by the middle of this week, which investors have been anxiously awaiting for more details on the company.

Media outlets have reported that SpaceX collectively generated a $5 billion loss, including the acquisition of xAI, on $18.5 billion in revenue in 2025. However, Starlink is reportedly incredibly profitable, having generated $11.4 billion in revenue and achieved 63% EBITDA margins.

Still, at a $2 trillion valuation, that means the company trades at over 108 times trailing revenue, which is a massive valuation.

While investors don't pay as much attention to valuation for a potentially industry-defining company like SpaceX, investors should still be mindful because plenty can go wrong, especially when we are talking about space.

How retail investors should approach the IPO

Investors will want to take a detailed look at the registration statement when it comes out to learn more about the inner workings of the company and to see what the financials actually look like.

Investors should also take a good look at the lock-up provisions, which detail how long insiders and other large investors in the company must hold their shares after the IPO before selling.

I would advise caution regarding buying shares on day one of the IPO. I think it's going to be incredibly volatile.

Just look at the Cerebras IPO. At one point on its first day of trading, the stock had more than doubled and reached $385 per share. As of this writing, it's down to slightly below $297.

Seeing what a few quarters of earnings look like could be really beneficial for prospective investors. Additionally, I think there will be better entry points in the stock within its first few months of trading, rather than buying on day one.

Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.