Elon Musk wants to take investors on a ride to the moon \u2014 and beyond.<\/p>\n
His pioneering rocket company SpaceX filed Wednesday<\/a> for what\u2019s expected to be the largest initial public offering in history, potentially raising at least $75 billion and valuing the company at as much as $2 trillion.<\/p>\n The registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an expected public offering next month explicitly sets aside stocks for retail investors, though the exact number will be spelled out in a later filing, as will the offering price and company valuation.<\/p>\n Interest in the stock offering is expected to be high despite the billionaire\u2019s controversial politics, including his involvement last year with the Department of Government Efficiency,<\/a> the makeshift cost-cutting effort that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of government jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cPotential investors are probably just as polarized as the electorate is too, given his dabbling in politics,\u201d said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist for BMO Private Wealth. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just the SpaceX IPO per se, it\u2019s a bigger, broader excitement among investors for space investment in general.\u201d<\/p>\n Investor interest was piqued by the Artemis II moon mission<\/a> this year that SpaceX did not participate in, she said. However, the company is expected to play a larger role in future missions that take astronauts to the moon..<\/a> <\/p>\n Ultimately, Musk, 54, wants to establish a colony on Mars but those plans have been set on the back burner, with NASA now focusing on moon missions.<\/p>\n Musk will remain the company\u2019s chief executive and chairman. Under a dual-class stock structure as a holder of special Class B shares he will be able to control the election of directors, the filing says.<\/p>\n The IPO is expected to be at least twice as large as the current record holder: Saudi Aramco, the state-controlled national oil and gas company of Saudi Arabia, which raised nearly $30 billion<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n Nearly two dozen banks will be underwriting the IPO and offering shares to investors, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup.<\/p>\n Founded in 2002 in El Segundo, SpaceX has revolutionized the aerospace industry by developing the reusable Falcon 9 rocket that has radically lowered launch costs.<\/p>\n The company moved its headquarters from Hawthorne to Texas in 2024. However, SpaceX retains large operations in the South Bay city and blasts off regularly<\/a> from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.<\/p>\n Scores of former SpaceX employees have launched startups in Southern California, including rocket company Relativity Space, hypersonic missile startup Castelion and satellite manufacturer Apex Space.<\/p>\n