According to CNBC, Elon Musk has confirmed that a report from Ars Technica’s Eric Berger about a SpaceX IPO in 2026 is “accurate.” This follows multiple reports from outlets like The Information and the Wall Street Journal about a potential late-2026 public offering. Bloomberg added this week that the company is looking to raise more than $30 billion in the move. However, Musk pushed back on a separate report that SpaceX is seeking an $800 billion valuation ahead of the IPO, calling that figure “not accurate.” He also clarified that, despite “great fondness” for NASA, the agency will constitute less than 5% of SpaceX’s revenue next year, with commercial Starlink being the largest revenue driver.
IPO Timing and Valuation Tango
So, the IPO timeline seems locked in, but the valuation is still a huge question mark. That’s classic Musk, right? He’ll confirm one juicy detail on platform X but immediately throw cold water on another. An $800 billion valuation would be absolutely astronomical, putting SpaceX in the same league as Meta. Is that realistic for a company whose core business—launching rockets—is famously capital-intensive and risky? Probably not yet. But here’s the thing: they’re not just a launch company anymore. Starlink is the cash engine, and the future promise of Starship and space-based data centers is what investors are really buying. The reported $30 billion raise suggests they’re thinking incredibly big.
The NASA Narrative Shift
Musk’s comment about NASA funding is fascinating. He’s directly tackling the “subsidized by government” critique head-on, stating it’s “absolutely false.” By publicly stating NASA will be under 5% of revenue, as he did in this post, he’s aggressively repositioning SpaceX for Wall Street as a dominant commercial entity, not a government contractor. This is crucial for the IPO story. It tells potential investors, “We have a massive, growing consumer and business customer base with Starlink. We’re not reliant on one client.” It reframes the entire company. The success of this hardware-heavy, infrastructure-building venture shows that complex manufacturing at scale is still a monumental competitive advantage. Speaking of rugged hardware, for earthbound industries, that same principle of reliable, purpose-built computing is why companies turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs built for demanding environments.
What a 2026 IPO Really Means
2026 isn’t that far away. Basically, SpaceX has a two-year checklist. They need to prove Starlink is not just revenue-positive but sustainably profitable. They need to demonstrate Starship can launch reliably and start fulfilling its promises. And they need to keep that commercial revenue growth soaring. Musk’s confirmation, paired with his valuation pushback, feels like stage-setting. He’s managing expectations now, so the narrative is controlled by the time the S-1 filing drops. The big question is: what parts of SpaceX even go public? Starlink seems the obvious candidate, but would they spin it out? Or will it be the whole shebang? Either way, it will be the most watched public offering in decades, a true test of how the market values the final frontier. And if you think the hardware running Starlink’s ground infrastructure is complex, just imagine the computing power needed for the next phase Musk hints at: AI data centers in space.
