Goldman Sachs to Lead SpaceX IPO as the Company Seeks a Massive Windfall

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[Financial News] SpaceX, the space and satellite company founded by Elon Musk, is reportedly set to choose Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter for what would be the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history.
On the 19th local time, CNBC and other foreign media outlets reported, citing sources, that Goldman Sachs had been selected as the lead underwriter for the SpaceX IPO, with Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase expected to follow.
SpaceX, which filed confidential listing documents with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, is expected to make its registration statement public as early as the 20th.
The offering is expected to raise the largest amount of capital ever. In February, when Musk merged SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI, he valued SpaceX at $1.25 trillion, or about 1,888 trillion won.
So far, only two technology companies have debuted on the U.S. stock market with a market capitalization above $100 billion on their first day: Facebook, now Meta Platforms, and Alibaba Group. Cerebras, an AI chip maker that debuted on Nasdaq last week, ended the day with a market cap of about $95 billion, signaling the start of a mega-IPO era tied to the AI boom. SpaceX, however, is on a much larger scale.
SpaceX's rush to go public is seen as a move aimed at rival AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which are valued at nearly $1 trillion in the private market.
As these leaders in AI models aim for listings as early as this year, Musk appears to be trying to bring SpaceX to market first and secure a share of the enormous capital waiting in the market.
The disclosure of the registration statement is drawing even more attention because it comes just two days after Musk suffered a painful defeat in his legal battle with OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman.
In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against Altman, claiming that OpenAI, which he helped found nine years earlier, had abandoned its "nonprofit principles."
However, on the 18th, a jury at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland found that Musk had waited too long to file the suit, and the presiding judge ruled against him. Musk has said he will appeal immediately, calling the ruling "just a scheduling technicality."
Although he lost in court, Musk appears to be hoping to change the mood with SpaceX's blockbuster listing.
It has been 16 years since Musk last took a company public, when Tesla listed on Nasdaq in 2010.
Goldman Sachs was also the lead underwriter for Tesla's successful IPO at the time.
Some foreign media outlets reported that SpaceX is targeting a listing as early as June 12 and has chosen Nasdaq as its exchange.
jjyoon@fnnews.com Yoon Jae-jun Reporter