According to Fortune, SpaceX’s board of directors met Thursday to discuss a private share sale for employees and early investors at a price over $400 per share, which would value the company between $750 billion and $800 billion. This would be a massive jump from the $212 per share price set in July, which valued SpaceX at $400 billion. The company isn’t raising new money through this sale, but a successful offering at this level would set a new private market record, surpassing OpenAI’s $500 billion valuation from October. CEO Elon Musk denied the company is raising money at that valuation but confirmed it does periodic buybacks for liquidity. Separately, sources say SpaceX is aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of 2025.
The Staggering Math of an $800 Billion SpaceX
Let’s just sit with that number for a second. $800 billion. That’s more than double where the company was just a few months ago. It would instantly make SpaceX one of the most valuable companies on the planet, public or private. If they did go public and sold just 5% of the company at that price, they’d be looking at a $40 billion IPO. That would blow the record for the biggest IPO ever—Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing—out of the water. It’s an almost incomprehensible figure for a company whose primary business, until recently, was launching rockets. But here’s the thing: SpaceX isn’t just a launch company anymore. It’s a vertically integrated space infrastructure and broadband internet giant. The valuation is betting overwhelmingly on Starlink’s future dominance.
The Starlink Factor and the IPO Dance
This is where the real story is. Falcon 9 is a phenomenal, profitable workhorse. But Starlink is the golden goose that justifies these numbers. With over 9,000 satellites already in orbit and a massive lead over competitors like Amazon’s Project Kuiper, Starlink is the cash flow engine of the future. It’s also the reason the IPO path has been so murky. For years, executives have floated the idea of spinning Starlink off into its own public company. Musk, however, has repeatedly cast doubt on that. Now, the chatter is about taking the entire company public. Why the shift? An $800 billion valuation for the whole entity might finally be too tempting to pass up. It provides a clean exit for early backers and a monumental payday for employees. But it also subjects the entire SpaceX empire, including the still-experimental Starship program, to the brutal quarterly scrutiny of public markets. That’s a huge risk for a company used to operating in secrecy.
Liquidity Without Losing Control
The current private share sale is classic SpaceX—and classic Musk. It’s a way to let employees and early investors cash in some chips without the company giving up an ounce of control or having to disclose its financials to the world. Musk’s statement on X saying SpaceX is “cash flow positive” and does buybacks is his way of saying, “We don’t *need* the public markets.” These tender offers keep the talent happy and the core mission insulated. But they also create a kind of shadow public market, where the valuation is set by a small group of insiders and big funds. It’s a brilliant strategy for as long as you can maintain it. The question is, with numbers this big, can that private club last forever? The pressure for a real IPO, with all its transparency and volatility, is going to become immense.
What an IPO Would Really Mean
If they pull the trigger in late 2025, it would be a seismic event. We’re not just talking about a new stock to buy. We’re talking about the entire industrial and technological landscape of space becoming a traded commodity. Every launch contract, every Starlink subscriber number, every Starship test flight—it all becomes a headline that moves a nearly trillion-dollar stock. For context, space IPOs in 2025 have been a mixed bag, with some soaring and others plunging. SpaceX would dwarf them all. It would also create a fascinating dynamic with Musk’s other giant, Tesla. Having two of the world’s top 20 most valuable companies run by the same person is… unprecedented. Basically, this private share sale is a temperature check. If insiders are willing to buy and sell at $800 billion, the market is signaling it’s ready for SpaceX to go public. And when you’re building the infrastructure for a multi-planetary species, having the capital markets of this one fully behind you probably helps.
