SpaceX is about to sell shares again and surprise, it might be worth more than OpenAI now
SpaceX is gearing up for another insider share sale, according to Bloomberg. And the numbers being floated are the kind that make venture capitalists suddenly forget how to blink.
People familiar with the talks told the newswire the company is preparing a tender offer that could lift its valuation above OpenAI’s recent $500 billion watermark. In other words, Elon Musk’s rocket company may soon be, once again, Earth’s most valuable private business.
The board discussed the plan on Thursday at Starbase in Texas, which is either a cutting-edge launch facility or a Bond villain lair, depending on your mood. The details are still in flux, but one scenario under discussion puts the per-share price at around $300.
That would value SpaceX at roughly $560 billion, a stunning jump from the $212 per-share price set in July when the company was valued at $400 billion.
A valuation bump of more than $150 billion in under six months would normally raise eyebrows, but this is SpaceX, a company whose fanbase treats orbital velocity as a personality trait.
A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, which is usually a sign that numbers are still moving or that someone is rewriting a slide deck at 3 a.m.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have tossed out even bigger figures, claiming sources believe the tender could value SpaceX at $800 billion.
Bloomberg could not confirm that number, but in an era where AI hype cycles are measured in dog years, it does not seem impossible that someone, somewhere, is willing to pay tech-company money for a space program.
Even this whisper of a deal was enough to fling EchoStar’s stock upward by as much as 18 percent.
SpaceX agreed last month to buy spectrum licenses from EchoStar for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier commitment to buy another $17 billion in wireless spectrum. When Musk shops, markets listen.
Of course, the valuation is not just vibes. SpaceX is the world’s most prolific rocket launcher and has effectively turned Falcon 9 into public transit for satellites.
Starlink, meanwhile, is a broadband constellation of more than 9,000 satellites, which is less of a network and more of an orbital megastructure. Amazon’s Project Kuiper exists mostly as a reminder that competition theoretically exists.
SpaceX has long teased the idea of spinning off Starlink in an IPO. Musk has also repeatedly said that will not happen any time soon, which is very on brand. The CFO said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO was something for “years to come.”
On Friday, The Information reported that SpaceX has privately told investors it is now aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year. If true, that would make Starlink’s solo debut feel less urgent.
Tender offers like this one give employees and early shareholders a chance to turn their golden handcuffs into actual cash without SpaceX having to go public. Given SpaceX’s growth, its employee base may need those liquidity windows to avoid becoming an economy unto themselves.
Meanwhile, the company is pouring resources into Starship, the giant stainless steel rocket that may one day deliver Starlink satellites by the thousands or drop humans on Mars, depending on which part of the fan wiki you read. It is billed as the most powerful rocket ever built, which is exactly what you would expect from a company chasing both extraterrestrial internet coverage and a multibillion-dollar valuation.
For now, the only thing certain is that SpaceX’s price tag keeps going up, gravity keeps losing, and investors cannot seem to resist a rocket story that might be bigger than the AI boom itself.
