SpaceX is hosting Wall Street analysts for three days ahead of its planned $75 billion IPO
The rocket and satellite company is briefing aerospace and tech analysts at its Texas launch facility and Tennessee data center this week
By Cris Tolomia
Updated April 21, 2026
SpaceX is holding three days of closed-door briefings for Wall Street aerospace and technology analysts this week at its Starbase launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, and its Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, according to a Reuters report from three people familiar with the matter.
Tuesday's agenda featured a full-day visit and walkthrough at Starbase, kicking off the series of briefings. Wednesday brings a fresh cohort of analysts tied to institutional money managers — pension funds and mutual funds among them — for their own Starbase session. The week wraps up Thursday at the Memphis data center, where participants will get a look at the "Macrohard" project, according to CNBC. Attendees are expected to surrender electronic devices to participate.
Roughly a fortnight after the analyst days conclude, a smaller circle of Wall Street analysts will be invited to a dedicated "modeling" session — a format in which management lays out financial forecasts and operating metrics so analysts can build their own earnings models before trading begins.
The clock is ticking for SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen, who has roughly two months to make the case for a $1.75 trillion valuation — the figure implied by the $75 billion the company hopes to raise in what would be a record-setting public offering, with a late June market debut in the crosshairs.
Ahead of the meetings, certain invited analysts were given access to SpaceX's confidential registration filing, though Reuters reported the document offered only a narrow window into the company's finances. That filing paints a mixed financial picture: cash holdings of roughly $24.7 billion sat alongside liabilities exceeding $50 billion at year-end 2025. Heavy spending on AI infrastructure in the wake of the xAI merger pushed the consolidated bottom line from a $791 million profit on $14.02 billion in revenue in 2024 to a $4.94 billion loss on $18.67 billion in revenue last year.
The company's path to a public listing shifted dramatically after Musk folded xAI into SpaceX earlier this year, a transaction that yoked together his rocket operations, Starlink broadband network, X $TWTR 0.00% social media platform, and Grok AI chatbot into a single entity. Pricing the combined company has proven unusually difficult, and Reuters reported that at least one major institutional investor has abandoned traditional aerospace and telecom reference points — Boeing $BA +0.22%, AT&T $T -1.10% — in favor of AI infrastructure names like Palantir $PLTR +0.69% Technologies, GE Vernova, and Vertiv when trying to justify the numbers.
Retail participation is a centerpiece of Musk's offering strategy: roughly 30% of shares are earmarked for individual investors, and the deal is being opened to retail buyers across the U.K., E.U., Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. The five lead banks on the transaction are Morgan Stanley $MS +0.15%, Bank of America $BAC -0.37%, Citigroup $C +0.61%, JPMorgan $JPM -0.40%, and Goldman Sachs $GS +0.61%, joined by 16 additional institutions in supporting capacities. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
OpenAI files for IPO, joining Anthropic in a $2 trillion AI listing race
The ChatGPT maker, valued at $852 billion, says it may be a while before it goes public but wants the option to move sooner
OpenAI submitted a confidential S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, moving toward a potential public offering as rival startup Anthropic and Elon Musk's SpaceX prepare to do the same.
The company is valued at $852 billion following a funding round closed earlier this year. A tender offer is also in the works that would let employees cash out shares, CNBC reported, citing a person familiar with the plans. Goldman Sachs $GS +0.61% and Morgan Stanley $MS +0.15% are leading the filing process ahead of a potential fall listing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
OpenAI said in a statement that it hasn't committed to a timeline because "there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company." The firm added that the filing "gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best."
Anthropic submitted its own confidential IPO prospectus a week earlier at a valuation of $965 billion. SpaceX has moved furthest along among the three, having already kicked off an investor roadshow last week ahead of what would be the largest IPO in history, according to The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX plans to sell shares at $135 apiece for a total raise of $75 billion, which would give Musk's company a valuation of around $1.77 trillion.
Investment bankers have advised both OpenAI and Anthropic that an early mover advantage is at stake, according to the Wall Street Journal. The first to list would set the terms for how investors categorize the AI sector and gain access to enormous amounts of capital looking for an entry point into the industry.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, writing separately on Monday, framed the moment as the beginning of a third phase for the company.
"The economy is beginning to reshape around AI," he wrote. "The central question now is how to make advanced AI abundant, affordable, safe, useful, and easy enough for every person and organization to benefit from it."
OpenAI's path to a public debut carries significant financial complexity. The company closed a $122 billion funding round in March at an $852 billion valuation and plans to spend heavily on semiconductors and data centers through 2030. Investor forecasts reviewed by The Wall Street Journal suggest the pace of OpenAI's cash consumption would be unprecedented among publicly traded companies. OpenAI has also missed some internal revenue targets recently, while Anthropic has pulled ahead among business customers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
ChatGPT now supports more than 900 million weekly active users, the company said.