Elon Musk says it’s accurate SpaceX will hit share market
Elon Musk has used his social media platform X to confirm news reports SpaceX is likely to seek a record-breaking listing on Wall Street in 2026 in a move that could value the company at $US1.5 trillion ($2.2trn).
SpaceX is Mr Musk’s business that operates the Starlink mobile internet connectivity services and also has ambitions to develop rockets that will fly humans to the planet Mars some 363 million kilometres away.
On Thursday morning, Mr Musk used X to state that reports that SpaceX will list on the share market soon were “accurate”. As speculation builds, the entrepreneur and salesman will seek to raise $US30 billion from the listing to invest in technologies linked to data centres and artificial intelligence.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“The level beyond that is constructing satellite factories on the moon and using a mass driver (electromagnetic railgun) to accelerate AI satellites to lunar escape velocity without the need for rockets,” Mr Musk said on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday.
However, critics argue Mr Musk is simply extending his track record of hyping up his businesses’ potential to enrich himself and undertake personal projects, such as his $US44 billion acquisition of X in 2022.
Share market stars
According to Morgan Stanley research, Mr Musk could sell SpaceX to investors on the basis that it can pivot from selling Starlink internet services to developing AI-connected satellites linked by lasers to data centres floating in space.
Estimates of SpaceX’s existing revenue in 2025 are around $US15 billion, with multiple news reports suggesting that could grow to between $US22 billion and $US24 billion in 2026.
The mooted $US1.5 trillion valuation would place the company on 100 times 2025’s estimated sales and would also make it more richly valued (in terms of sales and profit multiples) than any other members of Wall Street’s trillion-dollar tech club such as computer chip-maker Nvidia, Google-owner Alphabet, and Microsoft.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX employees sold shares in 2025 at a $US800 billion valuation, with the claims it could reach a $US1.5 trillion valuation by late 2026, based on unnamed sources.
Mr Musk is also a long-time customer of SpaceX cheerleader Morgan Stanley. The investment bank helped finance his purchase of X and also lends him money against his shareholdings in companies, including Tesla.
This allows Mr Musk to cash out some of his wealth against the shareholdings (without having to pay capital gains tax by selling the stock). It also suggests the investment bank and share market entrepreneur have a mutual interest in keeping the valuations of listed companies like Tesla as high as possible.
In December, Morgan Stanley valued Tesla shares as high as $US425 and based some of its analysis on products such as self-driving taxis, or humanoid robots that don’t exist yet at scale.
Tesla sales fall, shares rise
Tesla is also set to post its second consecutive year of falling sales in 2025 as consumers, in Europe in particular, are turned off by Mr Musk’s political activism.
The EV and energy storage pioneer also faces cut-price competition from Chinese auto-manufacturers and question marks over whether it can deliver on its promises of full self-driving (FSD) using camera-only sensor technology.
Mr Musk has also admitted to an on-and-off habit of taking the tranquiliser ketamine, amid the constant social and traditional media circus around his business, political, and private lives.
However, those dramas and Tesla’s falling sales are yet to hurt the EV maker’s share price. It has climbed 19 per cent in 2025 as investors back Mr Musk’s numerous claims, including that he can develop millions of humanoid robots that will harness AI to perform simple household chores such as cleaning the bathroom.
The upcoming rise of AI means the future may include mass unemployment and the need for governments to introduce a universal basic income for those out of work, the South African-born technologist has also claimed.
