Why SpaceX is breaking the IPO playbook with a $75 billion fixed-price offering

Good morning. Elon Musk is taking SpaceX public his way. Rather than following the Wall Street convention of setting a price range ahead of the IPO marketing process, SpaceX priced its offering at a single fixed price of $135 per share, a move that signals confidence in demand but is raising eyebrows among market watchers.

“This would be very unconventional, but the market will see this as a sign of confidence on the SpaceX IPO, while others could see it as a head-scratcher,” Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told me. “But it’s Musk and anything is on the table.”

Morningstar Equity Analyst Nicolas Owens offered additional context on what makes the single-price approach out of the ordinary. “Usually, the company and the underwriters will set the IPO price as a range, and they also usually have a bucket of shares they can add to the sale if demand is strong enough,” he told me. On Musk going with a single price: “I think it’s unusual compared to the regular IPO playbook,” Owens said. “In this case, I think the announcement just indicates they know there is enough demand to raise $75 billion,” he added.

Yes, SpaceX is aiming to raise $75 billion through its IPO under the ticker symbol SPCX on Nasdaq by selling 555.6 million shares at $135 per share, bringing the total valuation to $1.75 trillion—well above Morningstar’s independent valuation of $780 billion, which is based on the company’s core launch and satellite communications businesses and the cost advantages they’ve built through R&D and economies of scale.

The offering is structured as an all-primary deal, meaning proceeds will go directly to SpaceX while existing shareholders are not expected to sell their holdings. Existing shareholders, including Musk, will be required to hold their SpaceX shares for 366 days after the IPO, which is a signal of commitment to the company’s current plans.

But the confidence may be partly explained by what’s already baked in. As Fortune’s Shawn Tully recently reported, roughly 78% of the expected proceeds—about $62.8 billion—is already spoken for, pledged to insiders and vendors including Musk’s X Corp., xAI investors, and Valor Equity Partners. That leaves less than $18 billion in fresh capital for SpaceX’s AI buildout, which consumed over $20 billion in the past five quarters alone.

The stakes extend well beyond SpaceX. “This listing represents the first major test for public markets after years of muted IPO activity, with SpaceX paving the way for AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI to follow soon after,” Wedbush analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday. How the market receives Musk’s unconventional approach may set the tone for what comes next.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Sri Maddipati was promoted to EVP and CFO of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS) and Consumers Energy, its primary business, effective June 3. Maddipati joined CMS Energy in 2014 and was elected as VP and treasurer in 2016, a position he held until he moved to the role of Consumers Energy VP of electric supply in 2023. He was appointed Consumers Energy SVP and president of the electric supply business unit in 2025. Before joining CMS Energy, he was a VP in the financial institutions group at Goldman Sachs. 

Scott Humphrey was appointed CFO and treasurer of Stoneridge, Inc., a global supplier of electronic systems and technologies. Humphrey has 25 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO at Fox Factory Holding Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of specialty sports and on- and off-road vehicles. Before that, Humphrey served as interim CFO at Hibbett Sports and previously held the CFO role at Ciner Resources LP. 

Big Deal

A key solution to tech-driven health challenges: fostering social connection, according to an analysis by Bank of America Institute.

Social connection plays a critical role in wellbeing, with social bonding activities releasing oxytocin, reducing stress, and supporting cognitive health. While often viewed as individualistic, social connection is also shaped by broader infrastructure—such as community spaces, programs and local policies—with post-pandemic data pointing to rising demand for connection.

Live events and pet ownership are key drivers of social connection, helping reduce loneliness while supporting economic activity. Fostering connection both inside and outside the workplace is described as highly important.

Going deeper

“The IBM executive tasked with retraining 30 million workers is changing how she thinks about the AI finish line,” is a new Fortune article by Nick Lichtenberg. 

Lichtenberg writes: “Justina Nixon-Saintil has a big job: train 30 million people with new skills—with a significant emphasis on AI—by 2030. With 22 million reached and over three years left, she’s changing how she thinks about the finish line.” Read more here. 

Overheard

“Here’s the uncomfortable truth: AI can’t fix a broken C-suite running on an antiquated operating system.”

—Adrienne Down Coulson, chief operating officer of Rakuten International, writes in a Fortune opinion piece, “AI is turning workers into superhumans. Their leadership teams haven’t kept up.” Coulson has spent 30 years building scalable organizational structures at the intersection of operations, technology, and people.

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