SpaceX selects Goldman Sachs as lead for record IPO, sources reveal
Goldman is assigned the lead role on the prospectus, trailed by Morgan Stanley
SpaceX, now on the verge of releasing its IPO prospectus to the public, has appointed Goldman Sachs to steer what is anticipated to be a groundbreaking offering, as advised by informed sources.
Goldman is assigned the lead role on the prospectus, trailed by Morgan Stanley, and then Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, according to insiders who remain anonymous due to confidentiality reasons.
Elon Musk's rocket firm that can be reused is expected to make its prospectus available to the public by Wednesday, following last month’s private filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The IPO promises to be monumental as SpaceX was last evaluated at $1.25 trillion by Musk, following its merger with xAI, Musk’s AI enterprise, in February.
To date, only two prominent tech enterprises — Facebook and Alibaba — attained valuations exceeding $100 billion after their initial day on US stock exchanges. AI chip producer Cerebras made its Nasdaq debut last week, concluding with a market capitalisation close to $95 billion, signifying a potential influx of large-scale IPOs correlated to AI in the coming year.
SpaceX seeks to enter the public arena ahead of AI frontrunners OpenAI and Anthropic, both appraised at roughly $1 trillion by private backers. They aim to go public potentially within this year.
For Musk, the eagerly awaited prospectus arrives shortly after a legal setback against OpenAI and Sam Altman, its leader. Musk took Altman to court in 2024, alleging he reneged on an understanding to keep OpenAI, co-founded by Musk nine years prior, as a non-profit entity.
A consultative jury in Oakland, California, declared on Monday that Musk delayed too long to press charges against OpenAI and Altman for these allegations, a decision swiftly endorsed by District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Musk described the decision as a "calendar technicality," and intends to challenge it.
The previous instance Musk took a company public was Tesla in 2010, with Goldman at the helm of that offer as well. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank followed in that filing.