MW Space IPOs are trickling back. What that could mean for Elon Musk's Starlink.

By James Rogers

IPO chatter is again swirling around SpaceX' and its satellite-internet constellation, Starlink

After a dearth of space-industry IPOs in recent years, there has been a resurgence of activity in 2025, as well as renewed chatter around Elon Musk's SpaceX and its Starlink satellite-internet constellation.

Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at IPO fund manager Renaissance Capital, told MarketWatch that this year's IPO of Karman Holdings Inc. $(KRMN)$ and the forthcoming offering from Voyager Technologies Inc. are the only two traditional IPOs in the space industry since 2021.

Earlier this week, defense technology and space company Voyager set terms for its IPO, which is expected to price between $26 and $29 a share and value the company at up to $1.6 billion.

"In the past five years or so, space-industry listings have been mostly limited to SPAC mergers, which became the preferred listing mechanism for speculative early-stage companies developing advanced technologies," said Kennedy. "Like many other SPAC themes, space stocks sold off dramatically in 2022, as investors shunned early-stage companies with big valuations."

SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies, are often referred to as blank-check companies because they go public without an actual business, then look for a private business to buy so they can attach the purchased company's business to the stock.

Some space names have enjoyed significant gains recently. Space-launch company Rocket Lab Corp. $(RKLB)$, which went public in 2021 through a merger with the SPAC Vector Acquisition Corp., has seen its stock rise more than 513% over the past 12 months. AST SpaceMobile Inc. $(ASTS)$ went public through a merger with SPAC New Providence Acquisition Corp. in 2021 and has seen its shares rise more than 225% over the same period.

And shares of space-exploration company Intuitive Machines Inc. (LUNR), which went public in 2023 through a merger with another SPAC, Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., have risen more than 134% in the past 12 months.

Read: These are the space stocks to watch in 2025.

"Within the past year, investors have found renewed optimism for space stocks such as [Rocket Lab], [Intuitive Machines] and [AST SpaceMobile], much of which can be tied to promising technological advancements, rising revenues or partnerships/contracts," said Kennedy. "These are relevant data points for Voyager's upcoming listing, since it is more of a direct pure-play on the space industry than Karman."

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Denver-based Voyager Technologies counts NASA as its largest customer and is expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "VOYG."

In February, Karman Holdings, which operates as Karman Space & Defense, raised over $500 million after going public. The stock, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KRMN," has risen more than 46% this year.

IPO spinoff talk has been swirling around Starlink, the SpaceX-owned satellite-internet constellation, following comments from Musk, the high-profile chief executive of SpaceX as well as CEO of electric-vehicle giant Tesla Inc. $(TSLA)$.

Musk was asked about the possibility of a public listing for SpaceX or Starlink during a recent wide-ranging Bloomberg interview, and said Starlink may go public at some point in the future. "I'm in no rush to go public," Musk added.

"I know better than to try to predict a SpaceX or Starlink IPO, but these latest listings would certainly make it easier for those companies to go public, should they choose to do so," said Renaissance Capital's Kennedy.

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Fortuna Investments CEO Justus Parmar, whose venture-capital firm is an investor in SpaceX and other space companies, said that recent events surrounding Tesla may have influenced Musk's stance regarding a Starlink IPO.

"Although Elon is pulling back from his work in the government, it's been taking a lot of his time and energy," he told MarketWatch via email. "He needs to return his focus to his companies, like Tesla, which needs a lot of his help. That's one reason he's in no rush to bring Starlink public right now."

Last week, Musk said that he is leaving his leadership role in the controversial entity known as the Department of Government Efficiency, which had sparked widespread "Tesla Takedown" protests, as well as calls for him to refocus his energies on the electric-vehicle giant.

The climate for IPOs will also influence the timing of any Starlink offer. This year kicked off with a solid pace of IPO activity, according to data from PwC, although the market for public offerings slowed recently as tariff uncertainty roiled markets.

The Renaissance IPO ETF IPO has rallied 8.1% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 3.5%.

While the health of the IPO market is improving, Fortuna Investments' Parmar thinks that Musk is likely waiting for it to strengthen further before making any moves with Starlink. "I expect things to open up in the fourth quarter of this year, and 2026 should be a very good year for IPOs, but I don't think he'd move that quickly," he told MarketWatch. "In the best-case scenario, we see a Starlink IPO in 2027."

Musk and his private space company are in an interesting position, according to Andrew Chanin, CEO of Procure AM, issuer of the Procure Space ETF UFO, which does not have any exposure to SpaceX. "They are taking on really, really, ambitious projects, missions," he said. "When you're a publicly traded company, you have levels of accountability, disclosure, shareholder rights - all of these things will influence control or direction of the company."

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Chanin noted that when Musk took Twitter private and turned it into X, he was very vocal about not being beholden to outside influences and that money was not necessarily his top priority.

SpaceX is also said to be bringing in significant capital from private markets, which could also alleviate the need for an imminent Starlink IPO. Last year, Bloomberg reported that a tender offer valued SpaceX at about $350 billion. The transaction made Musk's company the world's most valuable private startup, according to Bloomberg.

"It's a good position to be in if you're running a company," said Chanin. "Time seems to be on SpaceX's side to make a determination as to when they go the IPO route."

-James Rogers

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June 04, 2025 16:09 ET (20:09 GMT)

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