SpaceX targets more than $2 trillion valuation in IPO

Elon Musk's SpaceX boosted its target IPO valuation above $2 trillion, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for what could become the largest stock market listing on record.

SpaceX and its advisers are floating the figure to prospective investors in its initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported, adding that deliberations are ongoing and details of the IPO could still change.

The startup submitted confidential IPO paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently and is targeting a market launch later this year.

The Starbase, Texas-headquartered firm could raise as much as $75 billion, according to the report, surpassing the 2019 IPO of Saudi Aramco, which remains the largest on record.

An earlier expectation of a $1.75 trillion valuation was already sparking debate over how much of that value was driven by SpaceX's cash-generating Starlink business and how much of a premium could be applied to its dominance in space launches, and unproven ventures such as Starship and space-based AI.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The IPO comes after Musk merged SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, in a deal that valued the rocket company at $1 trillion and the developer of the Grok chatbot at $250 billion.

The rocket maker has been lining up anchor investors well ahead of its stock market debut. It has had discussions with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund about taking an anchor stake of around $5 billion in the IPO, Reuters reported on Thursday.

-Juby Babu/Reuters