SpaceX is worth how much?
Bloomberg reported Thursday that SpaceX was seeking an initial public offering valuation of about $2 trillion, up from earlier estimates of $1.8 trillion. SpaceX was valued at $1.25 trillion after its merger in February with xAI. SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment about the Bloomberg report.
A $2 trillion valuation makes SpaceX the sixth-most valuable company in America, behind Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.com. Tesla sits in eighth place, behind Broadcom and Meta Platforms. A $1.25 trillion valuation for SpaceX would put it in ninth place, ahead of Berkshire Hathaway.
The bump in valuation can mean a few things. For starters, demand for the SpaceX IPO is, well, sky high. Elon Musk's rocket company is one of the most unique on the planet, handling more than half of all orbital launches worldwide and building its competitive moat through the pioneering use of reusable rockets.
SpaceX's competitive lead is hard to overstate. NASA began developing the SLS rocket that launched astronauts into space on Wednesday in 2011. Since then, it has launched SLS twice. SpaceX has launched its Falcon 9 rocket more than 640 times since then. What's more, NASA has spent tens of billions developing SLS. SpaceX has raised about $12 billion in total, enough to build its Starlink broadband business, with more than 10,000 satellites in orbit.
Musk also might have convinced investors that artificial-intelligence data centers in space are closer than they appear. Musk plans to put AI data centers in orbit, believing they will be cheaper than terrestrial data centers in a few years.
Having AI computing power is a valuable asset. Don't forget: OpenAI is paying Oracle $60 billion annually for five years, starting in 2027, to access 4.5 gigawatts of AI computing. SpaceX wants to put multiples of 4.5 gigawatts into space.
SpaceX's higher valuation also could mean that SpaceX is growing faster and more profitable than investors assume. SpaceX might generate $25 billion in 2026 sales. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, profit margins could be as high as 50%. That is high for an aerospace and defense company, but not unprecedented. They might be better. Or the revenue estimate could be low.
Whatever the reason, a $2 trillion valuation is another $300 billion or so for Musk, bringing his wealth north of $1 trillion.
The valuation gain has been nothing short of incredible. A year ago, SpaceX was worth about $350 billion.
The IPO is months away, with SpaceX filing confidential IPO documents this week, according to multiple reports. That filing also means that seeing SpaceX's full financials is weeks away.
They will be an interesting read.
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