Al Root

Loose lips sink ships, but not all the bankers involved in the SpaceX IPO seem to know that. Leaks keep coming, which can be frustrating for investors, anxious to see SpaceX's financial details. Their actual release, however, is likely just a few weeks away.

SpaceX is planning a record-setting initial public offering of stock. It is expected to raise some $75 billion and value Elon Musk's rocket company at as much as $2 trillion, instantly making it the most valuable aerospace company on the planet by a factor of roughly seven. ( GE Aerospace is worth roughly $300 billion.)

The company filed confidential paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late March or early April, according to reports. Many companies file confidentially so they can work out some details with regulators, ahead of making documents available to everyone.

It's all part of the IPO process. So is educating bankers charged with marketing the deal to investors. SpaceX hosted meetings with bankers this week in Boca Chica, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee, to tell its story.

Details of presentations and the IPO registration statement have leaked. Barron's, of course, has tried to get details. SpaceX hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment, and people we spoke with sound as if they are sworn to secrecy, and they probably are -- or they have signed NDAs.

Others reporters have had more luck. Investors have learned tidbits: Starlink, SpaceX's space-based broadband network, has achieved 63% Ebitda margins in 2025; SpaceX is morphing into an AI company with a total addressable market of almost $30 trillion; xAI, which SpaceX merged with in February, isn't close to profitable; and Elon Musk stands to make billions in additional compensation if SpaceX stock performs well.

The full document, however, will be available soo enough. The S-1 IPO registration document must be made public at least 15 days before the IPO roadshow. That means investors should see it no later than mid-May.

The document will be hundreds of pages long and provide risks, opportunities, and historical financials for SpaceX and xAI.

The IPO roadshow should begin in early June. At an IPO roadshow, investors often eat lunch at nice hotels while companies make their pitch for cash. The SpaceX IPO is huge, requiring many investors, many bankers, and many free lunches.

After the roadshow, brokers gather orders, price the stock, and allocate shares. Attractive IPOs are almost always 'oversubscribed,' meaning there are more orders for shares than are on offer. A good IPO has a feedback loop where investors, looking for IPO allocations, keep increasing their ask, knowing it will get cut back by brokers. Don't be surprised if "oversubscribed" becomes the most popular word of the summer.

The ultimate valuation will depend mainly on Musk's ability to convince investors that SpaceX can put AI data centers in space. SpaceX has a lot of credibility. Starlink has more than 10 million subscribers.

If space-based data centers are a thing, SpaceX will be compared with the likes of Alphabet, Microsoft, Oracle, and others. The least valuable of the three is Oracle, valued at about $500 billion.

Those are the waters SpaceX is trying to navigate -- and investors too.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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April 24, 2026 01:00 ET (05:00 GMT)

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