Elon Musk signals plan to launch IPO for SpaceX

NEW YORK

Elon Musk has signaled plans to soon seek a public stock listing of SpaceX, confirming a report that links the strategic shift to a near-term need for more capital.

Musk described as "accurate" a report in online publication Ars Technica outlining his embrace of a public listing as a way to access capital to finance the building of artificial intelligence data centers in space.

Ars Technica characterized the embrace of an IPO as a "major change in thinking" for Musk, who had previously resisted a public listing for SpaceX.

His comment comes on the heels of recent reports in U.S. media that SpaceX stands poised in 2026 or 2027 for a record-setting initial public offering valuing the company at $1.5 trillion.

Musk had previously opposed an IPO for SpaceX because "he has not enjoyed the public scrutiny of Tesla, and feared that shareholder desires for financial return were not consistent with his ultimate goal of settling Mars," wrote Ars Technica senior space editor Eric Berger in a Dec. 10 article.

SpaceX is moving ahead with an IPO that would seek to raise "significantly more than $30 billion," Bloomberg reported.

The potential public offering comes as the company anticipates a heavy increase in revenues tied to its Starlink telecommunications business.

Some of the funds raised through the IPO are expected to go to developing space-based data centers, Bloomberg reported.

Advocates of space-based data centers say the industrial sites could tap into the Sun's energy and would be easier to cool than land-based facilities.

An obstacle to deploying servers in space has been the cost of getting them into orbit, but advocates of the technology say launch prices may fall by the mid-2030s.