May 20, 2026, 5:06 PM 6:46 The SpaceX logo is displayed at a SpaceX facility on April 2, 2026 in Hawthorne, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images Elon Musk-led rocket and satellite company SpaceX on Wednesday filed for an initial public offering (IPO), paving the way for one of the most highly anticipated listings of the year. The IPO would raise fresh funds for the Texas-based firm, which also oversees Musk's ambitions in the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry. The move would subject the privately held company to new scrutiny from public investors and regulators, as well as ongoing financial reporting requirements. Related Court dismisses Elon Musk's case against Sam Altman and OpenAI SpaceX is seeking a valuation of $1.75 trillion, which would make it the world's ninth-largest company as measured by market capitalization. Tesla, another Musk-led company, boasts a market cap of about $1.4 trillion, making it the 10th-largest company worldwide. Founded in 2002, SpaceX builds and operates spacecraft, including thousands of satellites deployed in support of its Starlink satellite internet service. In February, the Texas-based firm merged with xAI, a Musk-led artificial-intelligence company that offers a chatbot in competition with the likes of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2026. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images SpaceX touted the merger as a key step in its plan to launch a fleet of "orbital data centers," satellites designed to deliver computing power, much like their terrestrial counterparts, according to the company's website. The company described the project as a means of addressing the energy-intensity of AI infrastructure, which has strained the U.S. energy grid and drawn pushback from some local communities. Popular Reads