SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO and its impacts

Biggest IPO of all time

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is aiming for the largest IPO ever. The aim is to raise $75 billion – more than ever raised before from a company flotation.[1] The current record is held by the Saudi Aramco oil company, which went public in 2019 and brought in $25.6 billion.[2] In the case of SpaceX, the plan is to sell 555.6 million shares at 135 dollars each. If successful, it will bring the market value of Musk’s space and communications giant to $1.75 trillion. With this a valuation, only six companies in the S&P 500 stock index, which maps the five hundred most valuable US-based listed companies, would be worth more than SpaceX. The group, which operates Starlink among other ventures, acquired Musk’s AI start-up xAI earlier this year. That deal boosted SpaceX’s value to $1 trillion.[3] One of the aims of the acquisition was to build a solar-power infrastructure in space to meet energy demands in the era of the AI boom. SpaceX has been on a advertising roadshow since 4 June, with the bankers involved talking up the IPO to potential investors.

‘Musk’s narratives’

However, the financial data behind this record valuation offers plenty of grounds for scepticism. Of the three corporate divisions currently operated by SpaceX – namely the launch division, the Starlink satellite arm, and the AI company xAI, including the social media platform X – only the second is currently making a profit.[4] True, SpaceX’s revenues are rising. But so too are its losses. In 2025, SpaceX generated revenues amounting to around $18.7 billion, a third more than the previous year, while also recording losses of almost $5 billion. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, with revenue of around $4.7 trillion, the losses amounted to approximately $4.3 billion.[5] xAI tore a huge hole in the balance sheet with an operating loss of $2.47 billion.[6] In response, a Danish pension fund has already blacklisted SpaceX on the grounds that the company’s valuation was “generously overblown”. The pricing, it said, was determined more by Musk’s “narratives than by economic realities”.[7] SpaceX has pinned most of its hopes for growth on advances in AI. The group’s revenue plans rely to a significant extent on technologies that are yet to be developed or matured, not least the solar-powered data centres in space. According to Reuters, the company has set its sights on a potential market of $28.5 trillion in the AI sector.[8]

Capital flight

Breaking with the customary structure of American IPOs, the SpaceX flotation is encouraging participation by retail investors from Germany and Europe. The Berlin-based fintech company Trade Republic announced that its European customers could subscribe to SpaceX shares directly via an app.[9] This could cause problems for the European economy. As Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, warns, a lot of capital is being drawn away to the US. “These massive IPOs are siphoning off capital. And they are doing so at valuations heavily influenced by speculation,” explains Schmieding, adding: “This will make it more difficult to finance investments in Europe.”[10] At the same time, investors from China, including Hong Kong, have been barred from access to the SpaceX IPO – for “security reasons”. The lead underwriters were instructed not to accept orders from investors in China, as the US Administration has imposed regulatory and compliance restrictions on the export of critical technologies.[11]

An unprecedented coup

Yet SpaceX’s recent worldwide expansion, particularly into Europe, is causing some unease in the conventional terrestrial communications sector, not least at Deutsche Telekom. Although satellite communications existed long before SpaceX or Starlink, they faced a fundamental problem: satellites have orbited the Earth at high altitudes, often at a height of 35,000 kilometres. From this distance, the signal takes a comparatively long time to ping back to Earth again. The delay amounts to half a second, sometimes even more, which makes video streaming and smooth internet browsing impossible. Starlink has fundamentally changed the communications model by placing more than 10,000 mini satellites into low Earth orbit at an altitude of 340 to 550 kilometres. The signal now takes just 20 milliseconds to be transmitted.[12] By comparison, a modern 5G network in Germany, such as those operated by Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica, has a signal latency of 15 to 25 milliseconds. What is more, Starlink has received approval from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a further 15,000 satellites in space, leading many to believe that SpaceX’s long-term plans include becoming a mobile network operator itself and replace the legacy providers.

‘Ride the dragon’

Telekom CEO Timotheus Höttges certainly sees this as a challenge for his group. “I can only confirm that Starlink is an absolutely first-grade tech company,” says Höttges: “If you can’t fight the dragon, ride the dragon.”[13] Höttges wants to continue Telekom’s existing cooperation with Starlink as a network operator; it is one of 35 operational partnerships that Starlink currently maintains across six continents. The Telekom boss hopes that Starlink will never be able to replace the terrestrial network. However, the data suggests otherwise. With a valuation of $1.75 trillion, SpaceX can achieve far more than its main European competitor. By contrast, Deutsche Telekom is estimated to be worth $150 billion, and T-Mobile $209 billion. And T-Mobile has already seen its share price fall by ten per cent – from around $210 per share twelve months ago to around $190 today. With regard to the mobile market, Starlink is already aggressively bidding for mobile frequencies in the US. Should the company establish itself in this sector, T-Mobile’s growth in the US could be thwarted. This would directly raise the stakes for Deutsche Telekom, which is dependent on its US business for around three-quarters of its market capitalisation.

A German Starlink

Meanwhile, efforts are gaining momentum in Europe to position a competitor against Starlink. Whilst SpaceX was preparing its IPO, the German Federal Cartel Office gave two defence and technology firms, Rheinmetall and OHB, the green light for their planned satellite consortium.[14] With this joint venture the two companies intend to bid for a multi-billion-euro contract from the German Bundeswehr to build a military communications satellite network comparable to Starlink. OHB would be responsible for producing the satellites and building ground stations, while Rheinmetall would make the network segments and end-user equipment. The Franco-German Airbus Group, which initially competed against the Rheinmetall and OHB joint venture, has now joined the consortium. Although the new three-way alliance effectively creates a monopoly that eliminates competition, from the Bundeswehr’s perspective it enables the sovereign LEO (low earth orbit) satellite project to be implemented swiftly. The consortium approach also helps to avoid legal disputes that would arise if the contract were awarded to a single bidder. If the German venture succeeds in providing gapless satellite communication, its military uses could overlap with commercial services.

[1] Echo Wang, Milana Vinn: SpaceX sets $135 price for blockbuster IPO, upending Wall Street convention. reuters.com 03.06.2026.

[2] Uwa Ede-Osifo, Lauren Almeida, Dan Milmo: SpaceX targets biggest ever stock market debut, putting Musk on course to be trillionaire. theguardian.com 04.06.2026.

[3] Echo Wang: SpaceX plans to set IPO price at $135 per share, targeting record $75 billion raise, source says. reuters.com 03.06.2026.

[4] Uwa Ede-Osifo, Lauren Almeida, Dan Milmo: SpaceX targets biggest ever stock market debut, putting Musk on course to be trillionaire. theguardian.com 04.06.2026.

[5] Thomas Jahn: Die wichtigsten Fragen und Antworten zum SpaceX-Börsengang. handelsblatt.com 21.05.2026.

[6] Matthias Lindner: SpaceX vor Börsengang: Pensionsfonds setzt Musks Firma auf die schwarze Liste. telepolis.de 30.05.2026

[7] Bernd Müller: Trade Republic öffnet IPOs für alle – das sollten Anleger wissen. telepolis.de 06.06.2026.

[8] Echo Wang: SpaceX plans to set IPO price at $135 per share, targeting record $75 billion raise, source says. reuters.com 03.06.2026.

[9] Bernd Müller: Trade Republic öffnet IPOs für alle – das sollten Anleger wissen. telepolis.de 06.06.2026.

[10] Alex Hofmann: SpaceX, Anthropic: Was die Mega-IPOs für die deutsche Wirtschaft bedeuten. table.media 06.06.2026.

[11] Cathy Chan: Chinese, HK Investors Banned From SpaceX IPO on Security Grounds. bloomberg.com 05.06.2026.

[12], [13] Thomas Jahn, Stephan Scheuer: Wie Elon Musk den globalen Mobilfunk übernehmen will. handelsblatt.com 28.05.2026.

[14] Kartellamt genehmigt Satelliten-Allianz von Rheinmetall und OHB. handelsblatt.com 16.04.2026. See also: Das deutsche Starlink.