With some of the largest and most influential tech giants planning to go public this year, 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the mega IPO.
Stock listings from OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX could all potentially happen in 2026, and it is the latter that may make its market debut first.
Here’s the latest on the potential initial public offering from Elon Musk’s space-tech company:
When is SpaceX’s IPO?
For some time, investors have expected, or at least speculated, that Elon Musk’s rocket and space technology company, SpaceX, would go public sometime in 2026. And it looks like that may finally be happening.
Citing anonymous sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX is expected to confidentially file its IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “in coming days.”
That means the company’s confidential IPO filing is likely to happen sometime between today and next week. The public IPO filing usually happens about eight weeks after the private one.
Of course, the actual SpaceX IPO wouldn’t occur until after both the confidential and public filings. If the standard eight-week timeline holds for public filings, that means SpaceX’s public filing will likely take place sometime in late May or early June.
And that June timeframe lines up nicely with WSJ reporting that says SpaceX’s IPO could happen sometime that month.
Indeed, the Journal says that SpaceX’s IPO is being timed for mid-June, before Elon Musk’s birthday, which is on Sunday, June 28. He will turn 55 this year.
Retail investors may get a bigger slice of the SpaceX IPO pie
Historically, when companies go public, very few shares are allocated to so-called retail investors—individuals like you and me.
At most, about 10% of a company’s shares are available to retail investors during an IPO, with the remainder earmarked for institutional investors.
Yet that’s not expected to be the case for the SpaceX IPO.
As reported by Reuters yesterday, Elon Musk is considering allocating as much as 30% of SpaceX’s IPO shares to retail investors. The move is reportedly being considered in part to help reward the loyalty of Musk’s ardent fanbase. The Reuters story cites an unnamed source.
This potential retail allocation also stands to benefit Musk and SpaceX. The large retail allocation could help drive hype for SpaceX stock among the masses, leading to a spike in shares on the company’s IPO day as more mom-and-pop investors rush to snap up SpaceX stock.
As more retail investors buy in, the price would rise, and since Musk is the largest SpaceX shareholder, his net worth would rise in sync, helping him toward one of his likely goals: becoming the first individual trillionaire in history.
Fast Company reached out to SpaceX for comment.
What is SpaceX’s IPO share price?
As of now, it’s not known what SpaceX’s IPO share price will be, nor how many shares will be made available.
How much will SpaceX raise in its IPO?
That’s yet to be decided. But the Wall Street Journal reports that SpaceX is looking to raise anywhere from $40 billion to $80 billion in its initial public offering.
If it were to achieve even the low end of that range, it would make SpaceX’s IPO the biggest in history.
That current title is held by the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), which raised over $29 billion in its 2019 IPO.
What is SpaceX’s stock ticker?
It’s unknown what SpaceX’s stock ticker will be.
Right now, the ticker “SPAX.PVT” is used to track the private company on financial sites like Yahoo Finance. However, that’s no guarantee that SpaceX will decide to use the “SPAX” ticker.
Which exchange will SpaceX trade on?
It’s likely that SpaceX will trade on the Nasdaq.
This is likely for a few reasons. First, the Nasdaq is already the home to the largest technology companies, including Apple, Google, Meta, and Nvidia Second, the Nasdaq is also already home to Elon Musk’s other publicly traded company, Tesla.
Given these factors, many expect Nasdaq to be the home of SpaceX shares.