Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is preparing to make history again, but this time the rocket he's launching is a financial one. SpaceX reportedly outlined details of its highly anticipated IPO at a meeting with its team of bankers Monday night, revealing plans to allocate an unprecedented portion of shares to retail investors and raise $75 billion at a valuation as high as $1.75 trillion.
If successful, it would be the largest initial public offering ever recorded, dwarfing Saudi Arabia's Aramco, which raised $29 billion in 2019.
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"Retail is going to be a critical part of this and a bigger part than any IPO in history," Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said during the virtual meeting, according to Reuters. "Those are folks that have been incredibly supportive of us and of Elon for a long time, and we want to make sure that we recognize that."
Elon Aims to Make IPO History
Sources indicate that SpaceX plans to launch its roadshow the week of June 8, when executives and bankers will pitch the offering to investors. About 125 financial analysts from the 21 banks working on the deal are scheduled to meet with the company the day before.
The company plans to make its IPO prospectus public in late May, with the structure of the deal and precise retail allocation expected to be finalized closer to launch.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs are leading the deal as active bookrunners, with 16 other banks handling institutional, retail, and international channels.
The reported $1.75 trillion target represents a significant step up from the $1.25 trillion combined valuation set when SpaceX merged with Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI in February. The company's most recent tender offer in December 2025 valued it at $800 billion before the merger.
Retail Investors Get Front-Row Seats to Launch
According to Reuters’ sources, one of SpaceX's lead underwriters predicted that the retail demand and allocation for the upcoming IPO will be something they've "never seen before."
Reuters previously reported that Musk wanted to set aside up to 30% of the company's shares for smaller investors, compared with 5% to 10% for most companies. That would be triple the typical retail allocation for major IPOs.
On June 11, SpaceX plans to host 1,500 retail investors at what sources described as a major investor event. In addition to the U.S., everyday retail investors in the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Korea would have the opportunity to participate in the offering.
The retail-friendly strategy makes sense given Musk's cult-like following. Tesla is currently one of the most widely owned stocks on the popular retail brokerage Robinhood Markets (HOOD).
Morgan Stanley's E*TRADE will reportedly handle smaller retail investors, Bank of America will handle U.S. high-net-worth individuals and family offices, and Citigroup will handle international retail investors.
Will Hype Launch the Stock Into Orbit?
SpaceX is venturing into public markets with a valuation that would immediately place it among fewer than a dozen companies with market caps over $1 trillion.
But unlike Saudi Aramco, which made over $106 billion in 2024 and over $121 billion in 2023, SpaceX reportedly generated only $8 billion in net income on as much as $16 billion in revenue in 2025.
Investors would be buying SpaceX at an incredibly high growth valuation, betting that the company will venture into whole new markets and immediately snap up significant market share, similar to what Tesla initially did with electric vehicles.
What's also interesting is that SpaceX now owns xAI, which includes Grok and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). As noted above, the combined entity was valued at $1.25 trillion when that deal closed earlier this year.
When Musk Tweets, Markets Move
Many IPOs see immense trading surges driven by general hype, but Elon’s social media habits have an even more intense effect on asset prices, which just may yield the heaviest IPO trading volume in history.
A 2022 peer-reviewed study in the Ushus-Journal of Business Management measured exactly how much a single Musk tweet can move stock prices in real time. The findings are worth understanding before SpaceX reaches public markets.
When Musk posted "Tesla stock price is too high IMO" on May 1, 2020, Tesla's share price dropped from $747.93 to $686.68 within 90 minutes, roughly 8.2%. Cumulative abnormal returns reached negative 426% at the five-hour mark.
When he tweeted "I kinda love Etsy" on January 25, 2021, Etsy's share price jumped from roughly $208 to $225 within ten minutes. The company's market cap increased by nearly $2 billion in a matter of hours.
The most explosive example: When Musk amplified the Reddit-fueled GameStop short squeeze with a single word ("Gamestonk!!"), the stock hit $350 within a minute from $145. Cumulative abnormal returns reached 127.8% within five minutes. The shares ultimately rose more than 92% that day.
Even symbolic gestures work. When Musk simply added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio on January 29, 2021, Bitcoin's price climbed from $32,054 to $37,682 within a minute, an 18% surge.
The researchers found a directional relationship between the emotional tone of Musk's tweets and the resulting price movements; authentically positive tweets moved stocks upward, and authentically negative ones drove them down.
The Big Question: Will Elon Deliver?
SpaceX seems to be in uncharted territory, and is not playing by traditional valuation rules. The company is a leader in the space sector with reusable rockets for astronaut launches and Starlink, a low-orbit satellite network providing high-speed internet globally.
But patient investors should remember that getting in on day one often feels great while lock-up provisions keep insiders from selling. Once those expire and early investors can unload shares, opportunities to purchase at lower prices typically emerge.
This IPO is so big that demand will likely be high across the board because of Musk's following and SpaceX's well-known status.
The question is how long the excitement will last, and whether retail investors buying at a $1.75 trillion valuation will still be celebrating when the initial euphoria fades.
Either way, the countdown has begun. Time will tell if this rocket reaches escape velocity or comes back to Earth faster than investors expect.
On the date of publication, Justin Estes had a position in: TSLA . All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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