This would harm the space economy and is one of the things that we all fear SpaceX could do. I certainly hope this is not the plan.

“There is also the time-value of money. it’s cheaper to lock in contracts now, than wait until you actually need them. Airlines used to buy fuel, this way.”

This is true, but it is a good strategy for well established businesses that can predict their future needs.

When starting a new enterprise, even for a large corporation, it is best to ease into the new business. Huge amounts of money and time can be wasted by anticipating what is needed for the new endeavor, buying it all right away, only to discover that you were wrong about the market or how quickly it would grow or the direction it would grow in. I worked for one company that merely moved its facilities, yet they started with a minimum of what was needed and expanded its facilities over time to meet the demand and the changing business conditions.

“It may be that SpaceX wants to put as much exo-structure in place as possible, before the next election.”

That sounds good, and all, but Democrat have a large box of tools to screw anyone they choose. It is why Musk builds so little in California. Like New York, California sent messages to the job creators that they don’t like, with a lot of spillover onto those that they did like.

Early on in Tesla’s history, Musk bought up, and vertically integrated, the necessary expertise and resources to manufacture EV’s. When everyone else got into the game, they found that Tesla had locked up everything they needed, significantly raising the barrier to entry. It’s a competitive advantage; when no one else can compete.

There is also the time-value of money. it’s cheaper to lock in contracts now, than wait until you actually need them. Airlines used to buy fuel, this way. And, as noted, space-related capabilities are only going to get more expensive. Putting money down now, is a hedge against inflation, and Democrats. It may be that SpaceX wants to put as much exo-structure in place as possible, before the next election.

Starship can quickly turn into a huge cash cow on its own, if it becomes a revenue generator in the next couple of years. A few years ago, SpaceX thought that it could launch a Starship for $2 million. After inflation, amortizing development and manufacturing costs, and assuming they were optimistic we can probably assume that they were off by an order of magnitude. With the announced launch price of $90 million for the Starlab launch, we can assume a profit for each low Earth orbit launch of around $70 million. Similar to the Falcons, once operational we can expect business to boom for Starship, too. The plummet in the cost of launching Starlink will free up much more cash for SpaceX to use; they had expected to have that cash available to them a year or two ago.

Much of my concern is that SpaceX, once it has a lot of cash in hand, may turn into Blue Origin instead of remaining SpaceX. Blue Origin elied more on the cash available rather than in frugal use of what little cash it had, and I would hate to see SpaceX turn the same way. It is easy to change a corporate culture from disciplined to indolent, as happened to Hewlett Packard a couple of decades ago, but difficult to change one toward a more disciplined approach to business. Becoming more disciplined is difficult for anyone. Just look at raising kids. Look at boot camp.

A $75 billion capital raise would allow SpaceX to kick in at least half of the estimated $20 billion cost of Elon’s just-announced Terafab project and still leave plenty to pay for the expensive earliest days of lunar industrialization. SpaceX won’t be spending it all at once, but, once it knows what it will have to play with, it can allocate capital tranches to a number of expensive projects in maximally parallel fashion.

I will wager right now that when the IPO hits, there will be the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual suspects about people, who, for whatever reason, are being ‘left behind’. Takers?

latest report indicates it could raise as much as $75 billion

Growing too quickly as a company is a source of trouble. If they raise that whole amount, then they need to be careful and judicious with it, growing the company at a rate that can be handled. If they spend the $75 billion all at once, that is a 300% or more sudden growth.

I guess I am saying, “Don’t spend it all in once place.”

As space stocks soar ahead of the SpaceX IPO, investors are optimistic that its trading debut will help usher in a new era of growth for the space sector, which has previously been seen largely as a speculative play.

I think that investors have been expecting growth for the past decade. The difference now may be that commercial space has already weeded out the less realistic, less thought out, more speculative ideas and are now moving into areas that are more likely to succeed. I suspect that the article is correct, that the IPO is showing everyone that space has become a growth sector. There are an increasing number of companies becoming successful, and the success of SpaceX is showing that success can grow a company quickly.

Rocket Lab’s price may have shot up due to its wide variety of successful endeavors in the space sector. They do much more than mere launches, but the launches are most visible.

Mark Boggett, CEO of space tech investment firm Seraphim Space, sees it as bullish not only for space stocks but for other tech companies that could benefit from an increased emphasis on space transportation, infrastructure, and exploration.

“The IPO would give SpaceX the firepower to accelerate its operations in infrastructure, connectivity, and AI-powered services,” he said. “SpaceX is no longer just a rocket and satellite company, it’s quietly becoming a compute powerhouse, combining Starlink connectivity, energy and transport infrastructure, and xAI’s AI clusters into a vertically integrated ecosystem.”

Elon Musk also is turning Tesla into a robot manufacturer. Because he intends to manufacture them on Earth and use some of them in space, I expect that they will eventually be relatively lightweight.