San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – SpaceX is targeting a mid-June initial public offering that would coincide with a rare planetary alignment and founder Elon Musk’s birthday, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, as the billionaire entrepreneur seeks to raise a record $50 billion.
The rocket company is planning its IPO for when Jupiter and Venus appear very close together in the sky — a conjunction that occurs for the first time in more than three years on June 8-9, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter. The timing, which the report said was subject to change, also aligns closely with June 28, Musk’s 54th birthday.
SpaceX is seeking to raise as much as $50 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.5 trillion, according to the Financial Times. That would make it the largest public listing in history, far exceeding the $29 billion raised by Saudi Aramco in 2019.
The unusual IPO timing underscores Musk’s history of mixing personal whims with business decisions. In 2018, he tweeted about taking Tesla private at $420 per share — a price widely understood as a reference to 420, slang for cannabis consumption.
SpaceX dominates the space launch market with its reusable rockets and owns the largest satellite constellation through Starlink. Musk had previously opposed an IPO for SpaceX because he had not enjoyed the required scrutiny of publicly-traded Tesla, and feared that the market’s desire for financial returns was at odds with his ultimate goal of settling Mars.
But the company’s latest priorities will require significant investment, prompting Musk to opt for an IPO. These include developing Starship, the largest rocket ever built, for missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as plans to build space-based data centers for artificial intelligence.
© 2024 AFP
