Tag: IPO

SpaceX official confirms it is considering an IPO

10:58 am

In a message to employees on December 12, 2025, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, Bret Johnson, confirmed the company is considering issuing an initial public offering of stock sometime in 2026, but that nothing has been decided in any way.

His announcement also indicated the reason to do so would be to raise enough funds to “ramp Starship to an insane flight rate, deploy AI data centers in space, build Moonbase Alpha and send uncrewed and crewed missions to Mars.”

I think the question is whether the company is raising enough revenue from Starlink to do what it wants, or whether it now sees a need for more investment capital that it cannot get from either that revenue or private stock sales. If it finds in the coming months the former is sufficient, the stock sale will be put off, probably for several years. If it finds the latter, than we shall see this IPO sometime in 2026.

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Unconfirmed anonymous sources at Reuters and Bloomberg claim SpaceX is planning a public stock offering

12:46 pm

Two stories from Reuters and Bloomberg yesterday suggest Elon Musk is considering making SpaceX a publicly traded company, with an initial stock offering sometime in 2026. From the Reuters’ report:

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise more than $25 billion through an initial public offering in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket-maker’s valuation to over $1 trillion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The company’s move towards a public listing, which could rank among the largest global IPOs, has been largely driven by the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite internet business, including plans for direct-to-mobile service and progress in its Starship rocket program for moon and Mars missions.

SpaceX has started discussions with banks about launching the offering around June or July, the person said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential information.

Since both stories rely entirely on anonymous sources, we should not take either very seriously. I only post this now merely to put it on the record. And though Elon Musk has since hinted there might be some truth to both, he has also been very vague about his plans. While a public offering would garner him a lot of cash, it would bring with it a lot of regulatory headaches that would seriously interfere with what he wants to do. In the end I think (and hope) he will decide it ain’t worth it. Starlink right now is bringing in enough money to allow him to accomplish everything, and more.

If anything, these stories illustrate again the corruption in our modern propaganda press. Such stories would have been considered junk four decades ago. Then it was traditional practice that a story needed at least two independent sources, one of which was not anonymous. No longer. Anyone can push any lie, and these news outlets will publicize it, for the sake of clicks.

NOTE: This is a recreation of a post published on December 10, 2025 that was lost during this morning’s server outage.

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SpaceX to launch another secondary private stock sale, hints at going public

9:44 am

UPDATE: Elon Musk has posted on X that this story is “not accurate.”

According to reports yesterday, SpaceX is about to launch another secondary private stock sale that double the value of the company.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.

At the elevated price, Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.

At $800 billion, SpaceX would be the world’s most valuable private company.

As for going public, nothing is confirmed. Musk has made some comments suggesting he is considering the idea, but at the same time has noted the problems such a act would cause him.

Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn’t love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw “spurious lawsuits,” and can “make it very difficult to operate effectively.”

It seems to me it would be a big mistake for Musk to do this. As a public stock-trading company, Musk would lose the freedom he presently has with SpaceX.

Meanwhile, this new private stock offering has done wonders for the value of Echostar’s stock, now that the company’s own stake in SpaceX after selling it some of its FCC licensed spectrum.

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Firefly’s stock sags due to poor revenue numbers in 1st quarter report

10:06 am

Firefly's stock price since IPO

Apparently Wall Street has lost faith in the rocket startup Firefly since that company went public last month. The stock zoomed initially, but has now sagged due to a poor 1st quarter report that showed revenues far below expectations.

The stock’s initial price had been predicted to range from $35 to $39, but quickly rose to $70.

Since then the price has steadily dropped, so that today it sits about about $41.

The news reports seem to think this indicates bad things for the company. I see this as simply a long term correction from the initial over-enthusiasm by buyers. The company had first offered a stock price close to this number. The price is now exactly where Firefly predicted.

If I was interested in buying stock, this might actually be a good time to buy. As a rocket startup, Firefly appears quite solid, being the only startup to successfully soft land on the Moon. Its Alpha rocket has also been cleared for further launches, and though it has had a mixed launch record, with several launches failing due to upper stage issues, it has likely solved these problems.

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Firefly’s stock value far exceeds the predicted price

9:41 am

When Firefly announced it was going public at the end of July, it predicted the stock price would range from $35 to $39, with the initial public offering raising about $600 million in capital for the company. Less than a week later it revised these predictions upward to $45 and about $700 million.

When trading opened yesterday, these numbers were still too low, with the stock immediately trading at $70 per share> and raising almost $900 million.

The space and defense technology company reached a peak valuation of more than $9.84 billion during intraday trading, after its shares began trading at $70 — up more than 55% from the initial public offering price of $45. The stock climbed as high as $73.80 during the session before closing at $60.35.

Firefly sold more than 19 million shares in the offering, raising at least $868 million. By the end of trading Thursday, total volume had approached 30 million shares.

This confidence and enthusiasm by Wall Street reflects Firefly’s success this year in becoming the first private company to land an unmanned spacecraft softly on the Moon. It also suggests the market expects the company’s orbital tug and rockets to succeed. Though its Alpha rocket has had a mixed record of success, its new larger Eclipse rocket is being built in partnership with Northrop Grumman, which has invested $50 million into its development.

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Firefly’s stock sells at price higher than expected

8:54 am

Firefly began selling stock to the public today on the Nasdaq stock market, with the price per share immediately rising to $45 per share, above the expected range of $41-$43, suggesting it could raise as much as$868 million in investment capital.

The strong interest in the stock by investors suggests there is great confidence in the company’s future, following the successful landing of its Blue Ghost lunar lander earlier this year. It has won a total of four lander contracts from NASA. The company also has won both commercial and NASA contracts in connection with its Elytra orbital tug. It has had mixed results with its Alpha rocket, experiencing both launch failures as well as successes, but it is also developing a larger rocket in partnership with Northrop Grumman.

This enthusiasm is noteworthy in that the company is not yet in the black, though its revenues have been increasing.

For the quarter that ended in March, Firefly reported a net loss of about $60.1 million, widening from $52.8 million in the year-ago period. Revenue jumped sixfold to $55.9 million from $8.3 million. Its backlogged totaled about $1.1 billion.

Overall it appears Firefly’s future is solid, suggesting it will join SpaceX and Rocket Lab as a major new space player in the coming years.

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Firefly hopes to raise more than $600 million in initial stock offering

9:03 am

The rocket startup and lunar lander company Firefly yesterday posted details about its initial public stock offering, designed to hopefully raise more than $600 million.

Firefly Aerospace, a market leading space and defense technology company, today announced that it has launched the roadshow for its proposed initial public offering of 16,200,000 shares of its common stock. In addition, Firefly intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 2,430,000 shares of its common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The initial public offering price is expected to be between $35.00 and $39.00 per share.

The company stated it would use the money “to repay outstanding borrowings under its credit agreement, pay any accrued and unpaid dividends on certain series of its preferred stock, and for general corporate purposes.”

The company has not yet announced the date when this stock offering will become available for purchase.

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If you are hoping to buy stock in Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, Musk now says you will have to wait until they have begun regular missions to Mars.

9:45 am

If you are hoping to buy stock in Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, Musk now says you will have to wait until they have begun regular missions to Mars.

This is a change from earlier comments by Musk, which to me suggests that the company’s recent successes and sales has made it profitable enough that he’d rather maintain control than get cash from an IPO. By keeping the company private, Musk can avoid being beholden to stockholders. He can do what he wants.

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