SpaceX, the rocket and satellite maker run by Elon Musk, told employees on Friday that it would buy insider shares in a deal that would value it at around $800 billion, and said that it was preparing for a potential initial public offering next year.
In a letter to employees, Bret Johnsen, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, said the company planned to buy $2.56 billion of shares from stockholders at $421 a share, nearly double its previous internal share price. Mr. Johnsen also alluded to a possible public offering in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.
“Whether it actually happens, when it happens, and at what valuation are still highly uncertain, but the thinking is that if we execute brilliantly and the markets cooperate, a public offering could raise a significant amount of capital,” he wrote.
The offer to buy shares from employees would make SpaceX the world’s most valuable private company, outstripping the A.I. company OpenAI, which is currently valued at around $500 billion. If and when SpaceX goes public, it would likely be one of the largest ever public listings, and an enormous wealth creation event for shareholders.
SpaceX did not immediately return a request for comment.
Mr. Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has built it into one of the world’s most influential companies, dominating the space industry with its rockets and its Starlink satellite internet service. It has been a jewel of his business empire and a source of his wealth and power, along with his electric vehicle company, Tesla. SpaceX also works closely with the Pentagon, NASA and other agencies, giving it a vital role in national security.
Mr. Musk, who left his role as a close adviser to President Trump in late May, has ambitions of using a mammoth SpaceX rocket called Starship to ferry humans to Mars. He also has a multibillion-dollar agreement with NASA to send a crewed mission to the moon, and has referred to a proposed base on the moon as Moonbase Alpha. But SpaceX’s plan for the moon appears to have fallen behind schedule.
SpaceX has amassed billions of dollars in funding over the years from investors including Founders Fund and Google’s parent company Alphabet, but Mr. Musk maintains the largest individual stake. As of 2022, he owned 44 percent of the company.
On X, the social media platform he owns, Mr. Musk has hinted that SpaceX would go public soon. The world’s richest man has been a frequent critic of the public markets, and he once threatened to take Tesla private in 2018 after battles with short sellers and analysts.
Mr. Musk, who recently gained a pay plan at Tesla that could be worth $1 trillion, appears to have set those reservations aside as SpaceX looks for more money. In the letter on Friday, Mr. Johnsen said that a public offering would open up new avenues for the company.
“That enables us to ramp Starship to an insane flight rate, deploy A.I. data centers in space, build Moonbase Alpha and send uncrewed and crewed missions to Mars — ultimately increasing the probability of making life multi-planetary in our lifetimes,” he wrote.
Ryan Mac covers corporate accountability across the global technology industry.
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