Elon Musk is set to become the world’s first trillionaire after a Thursday report by CNBC said he plans to offer SpaceX shares at a fixed price of $135 in an initial public offering (IPO).
According to the report, which cites Musk’s filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, SpaceX plans to sell 555.6 million shares during its future IPO, which would represent some $75 billion in funds raised.
An additional 83.33 million shares would be available to purchase at the fixed rate after the first IPO by the initial investors, while Musk would keep 82% voting control in the company.
At the reported fixed rate, Musk’s SpaceX would be valued at $1.77 trillion, with the main investors interested in participating in this IPO being Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citi Group, and JP Morgan Chase.
The Nasdaq debut is expected to happen on June 12, according to Musk’s estimates.
Musk's trillion-dollar strategy
According to estimates by Forbes, Musk will retain a 42% stake in the company valued at $688 billion if the current IPO rates are finally confirmed.
The current estimate, previous to the IPO, places Musk’s stake in the company at a $500 billion mark, mainly based on the company’s own internal valuation established after merging with Musk’s AI company xAI.
The 13-digit net worth is achieved by combining SpaceX's new post-IPO valuation with his stakes in Tesla (worth approximately $174 billion), Neuralink, and the Boring Company, as well as previous gains from Tesla share sales.
The key to Musk becoming a trillionaire lies in the SpaceX-xAI merger, which can be traced back to the acquisition of Twitter and its rebranding to X.
Musk bought the social media platform in 2022 for $44 billion, rebranded the company, and eventually launched Grok, an artificial intelligence model that used the platform as its training ground.
To develop Grok, Musk then launched xAI, the AI company that eventually became X’s main company in a merger that valued the combined company at approximately $113 billion.
The subsequent merger with SpaceX valued the company at $250 billion, representing a net gain of $206 billion in valuation from the initial $44 billion needed to buy Twitter.