NEW YORK (AP) — While Elon Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars might remain unfulfilled, investors view the SpaceX founder as a remarkable innovator. This belief is set to propel him towards a new milestone on Friday, as SpaceX goes public.
Elon Musk, the wealthiest individual globally, is on the brink of becoming the first trillionaire.
To celebrate the listing of SpaceX shares on Nasdaq, Musk participated in a ceremonial bell ringing from Starbase, the company’s base in South Texas.
He reaffirmed his ambitious vision of making life multi-planetary.
Musk addressed viewers, saying, “Not just a few astronauts, I mean literally you. Whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars and ultimately beyond.”
Despite being known for his technological breakthroughs and sometimes unrealistic claims, Musk is anticipated to surpass the trillion-dollar mark with what is expected to be the largest initial public offering in history. According to Forbes, his net worth stands at $982.6 billion prior to SpaceX’s trading debut.
SpaceX has pledged ambitious goals, such as establishing a million-person colony on Mars, creating other space outposts, launching massive data centers into orbit, and surpassing rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in monetizing artificial intelligence.
However, to achieve these objectives, SpaceX requires significant funding beyond its current revenue from rockets and satellites. Between early 2025 and March 2026, SpaceX reported a loss of $8.7 billion.
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Both large institutional investors and smaller investors have shown readiness to invest, with the price of 555.6 million shares on offer expected to raise $75 billion. This surpasses the previous record set by Saudi Aramco, which raised $26 billion in 2019.
The success of the IPO largely hinges on Musk himself.
Musk, poised to be the first trillionaire on paper, initially amassed wealth by selling two companies, Zip2 and PayPal, for around $200 million. He used these funds to establish SpaceX and invest in Tesla, achieving milestones like reusable rockets and popularizing electric vehicles.
Despite his substantial wealth, much of it is tied up in stock or contingent on meeting performance goals for Tesla and SpaceX. His recent compensation package from Tesla sparked criticism from the Vatican, and his attention divided across several companies has concerned Tesla shareholders, especially following his involvement in the Trump administration last year.
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Nevertheless, a rising stock price has alleviated concerns. Since Tesla’s public debut in 2010, it has delivered a 20,000% return to shareholders, equating to over $1.2 trillion in investor wealth. This has increased Musk’s estimated net worth to $795 billion before the SpaceX IPO, according to Forbes.
SpaceX is the first of three major companies expected to go public this year, with Anthropic and OpenAI following. Nasdaq has adjusted its regulations to allow SpaceX shares to be included in funds tied to its indexes after 15 days, accelerating investor access.
However, not all investors are pleased with SpaceX’s potential inclusion in index funds. Pension fund officials for California and New York firefighters, teachers, and other workers recently expressed concerns over the IPO’s provisions, such as super voting shares and mandatory arbitration, which consolidate Musk’s power within the company.
AP reporters Stan Choe and Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed from New York.
