SpaceX to the Moon (Literally): Musk's Rocket Giant Confidentially Files for Record $1.75T IPO

Elon Musk's SpaceX has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to reports from Bloomberg and CNBC. The company is targeting a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion after merging with Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI. For those keeping track at home, that's roughly the GDP of Italy—but in rocket form, with more meme potential.

The aerospace giant seeks to raise as much as $75 billion in what would be the largest public offering in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco's $29 billion debut in 2019. The confidential filing allows regulators to review the company's finances privately before they become public. The IPO is expected to launch in June. Imagine having so much money you get to preview your own IPO like a Netflix show before the rest of the peasants find out.

While Musk has not made a public statement about the filing, he has hinted at the plan. In February 2021, Musk posted on X that SpaceX's internet service Starlink could go public, "Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well." In December, after Ars Technica senior space editor Eric Berger posted "Here's why I think SpaceX is going public soon," Musk responded, "As usual, Eric is accurate." For a guy who claims to hate public markets, Musk sure loves dropping breadcrumbs on Twitter like a decentralized hint-dropping machine.

The June timeline would give SpaceX the jump on other potential blockbuster IPOs, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The IPO would fund what the company described as an "insane flight rate" for its developmental Starship rocket, artificial intelligence data centers in space, and a lunar base, according to an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg. Nothing says "reasonable business expansion" quite like building AI data centers in the void of space while shooting rockets at the moon like it's a game of celestial ping pong.

Musk's long-term ambitions center on Starship, SpaceX's rocket system designed for deep-space missions. SpaceX says the vehicle will eventually carry cargo and crew to the Moon and Mars. However, setbacks including Starship explosions have kept that dream from coming to fruition. To be fair, "explosions" is just SpaceX's way of doing rapid iteration—KABOOM is the new YOLO, baby.

In other tech news, Google launched Veo 3.1 Lite through the Gemini API at less than half the cost of Veo 3.1 Fast. Meanwhile, research from Caltech suggests quantum computers capable of breaking modern cryptography may require far fewer qubits than previously believed, thanks to a new neutral-atom system developed with Pasadena-based quantum computing startup Oratomic. Nothing like a new quantum breakthrough to make your encryption feel like a sandcastle at high tide.

The conflict between Washington and California over AI policy also escalated Monday after Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order requiring stronger safeguards from AI companies seeking state contracts. It's like watching two giant regulatory beasts fight