Goldman Sachs has reportedly secured the leading underwriting role for SpaceX’s expected stock market debut this year in a move that paves the way for the largest IPO in history.
SpaceX has chosen Goldman Sachs to take the leading role in its anticipated initial public offering, signalling that preparations for the aerospace and AI firm’s public market debut this year are gathering pace, according to CNBC sources familiar with the matter.
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Goldman Sachs has reportedly been awarded the "lead left position" on the IPO. In investment banking, the lead left bank is the underwriter listed first on official transaction documents, indicating it is primarily responsible for coordinating the offering, overseeing investor engagement and helping set the final share price.
The major US bank will be followed by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, said the CNBC sources, who asked not to be named.
Neither SpaceX nor Goldman Sachs publicly confirmed the report as details regarding the size, valuation and timing of the IPO also remain uncertain.
Currently, the IPO is expected sometime this year at a valuation of $1.25 trillion (€1.05tn) or higher, shattering all previous records and potentially placing SpaceX immediately in the top ten most valuable publicly traded companies, ahead of Tesla, another of Elon Musk's firms.
The IPO will also likely turn Musk into the first recorded trillionaire in history.
Retail investors could receive unusually large allocation
The latest developments also follow earlier reports that Musk is considering setting aside a sizeable portion of shares for individual investors.
SpaceX is allegedly exploring plans to allocate up to 30% of IPO shares to retail investors, an uncommon structure for a listing of this scale. Such an allocation would potentially allow broader participation from smaller investors rather than concentrating access among institutional funds.
Analysts have increasingly focused on Starlink as a major driver of SpaceX’s valuation, given the division’s recurring revenue model and expanding global subscriber base.
In February the company also acquired xAI, another of Musk's firms, in an all-stock transaction that valued SpaceX at $1tn (€842bn) and xAI at $250bn (€210bn), creating an entity with a $1.25tn (€1.05tn) private valuation and adding AI exposure to the offering.
A successful flotation would also mark an important moment for global equity markets, which have experienced a slower pace of IPO activity in recent years amid elevated interest rates and volatile technology sector valuations.
AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems made its Nasdaq debut last week and finished trading with a valuation of roughly $95 billion (€81.75bn), fueling expectations for a wave of major AI-driven IPOs this year.
For Goldman Sachs, securing the lead role in the transaction could further strengthen its position in the market for high-profile technology listings, at a time when competition among major investment banks for large IPO mandates remains intense.
