SpaceX’s valuation debate has jumped from boardroom rumor to public spectacle: people familiar with the matter say the company discussed an insider share sale that would price the firm at roughly $750–$800 billion — a figure that, if reached, would eclipse the $500 billion private-company high set by OpenAI earlier this year.
Elon Musk pushed back on the headlines over the weekend, posting on X that reports of SpaceX “raising funds at an $800 billion valuation are inaccurate,” and reminding followers that the company has been cash-flow positive and runs periodic buybacks to provide liquidity to employees and early investors.
What was reportedly on the table
According to people briefed on the matter, SpaceX’s board met at Starbase and discussed a secondary or tender-style transaction allowing employees and some early investors to sell shares to interested buyers at a price north of $400 a share — more than double the $212-per-share benchmark set during a July fundraise that valued the firm at about $400 billion.
Crucially, the talk was about liquidity for insiders, not a primary capital raise for the company. That makes this a symbolic marker of private-market appetite for SpaceX rather than an immediate cash infusion into its balance sheet.
Why the number matters
An $800 billion private valuation would reposition SpaceX within a rarefied band of companies that can trade at nine-figure valuations in private markets, and it would put the firm near the top of the biggest public-company lists if it ever went public. The Information — citing conversations with investors and bankers — reports the company is aiming for a full IPO as soon as late 2026, though plans can and do shift.
If SpaceX were to list even a modest slice of itself at that valuation (for example, 5%), it would create one of the largest IPOs in history on paper — a multibillion-dollar event that would force new levels of disclosure and market scrutiny on a company that has largely operated behind private-market curtains.
Investors and markets have already shown sensitivity to the buzz: satellite and wireless-related stocks ticked higher after the reports, reflecting commercial ties across the industry. SpaceX’s earlier deals with spectrum sellers, and the rapid growth of Starlink’s low-earth-orbit constellation, are part of the background to why private buyers may be willing to pay up.
The tension between private price tags and public reality
Secondary offerings like the one discussed let employees monetize paper gains without the company itself going public. But private-market price discovery can be messy: pricing often depends on which buyers are in the room, how motivated sellers are, and what comparables investors use. That helps explain why Musk sought to downplay the coverage, emphasizing buybacks and cash-flow positivity.
There’s also a broader context: the space sector has seen mixed receptions for public debuts in 2025, and a SpaceX IPO would expose it to short-term market pressures and regulatory visibility that private financing avoids. Still, executives have periodically floated the idea of splitting Starlink into a public company, a debate that resurfaces whenever valuations spike.
SpaceX’s ambitions are not just financial. The company is pushing Starship development to carry large payloads, including more Starlink satellites, and expanding commercial services that already intersect with terrestrial telecoms — from spectrum deals to emergency-communications partnerships that echo recent moves letting carriers explore satellite-to-phone capabilities like text-to-911 via Starlink T‑Mobile customers report sudden loss of free DashPass — carrier points to account changes, some say it's a glitch.
Meanwhile, the race for space-based infrastructure and services is broadening beyond launch and connectivity. Projects such as in-space data centers are surfacing as longer-term plays for big tech and cloud providers, underlining why private investors might assign aggressive growth potential to companies that control launch, satellites, and end-user services Google’s Project Suncatcher aims to put AI data centers in space.
What to watch in the coming months
Expect more chatter and formal outreach to institutional buyers: secondary transactions like this require interested investors on the buy side and willing sellers on the other. The company could choose to green-light a tender at the discussed price, scale the size up or down, or shelve the plan entirely — and Musk’s public denial indicates SpaceX is sensitive to the optics and the message. If an IPO timetable is firmed up, the next round of public documents would be the clearest signal of intent.
For employees and early backers, the practical question is liquidity: secondary sales can realize long-held gains, but the price set in a private tranche is not a guaranteed preview of public-market pricing. For the broader market, a headline-grabbing private valuation keeps the spotlight on how investors value companies that combine hardware, services, and long-duration bets like interplanetary transport.
SpaceX remains a company straddling two worlds: an operational powerhouse in launch and satellite broadband, and a private asset whose price keeps rising in the shadows. Whether that price becomes a public one — and on what terms — is what investors, regulators and employees will be watching next.