SpaceX’s Behind-the-Scenes IPO Drama: Outpacing OpenAI, Frenzied Acquisitions to Boost Assets, with Wall Street Led by the Nose the Entire Time

SpaceX’s Behind-the-Scenes IPO Drama: Outpacing OpenAI, Frenzied Acquisitions to Boost Assets, with Wall Street Led by the Nose the Entire Time

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Musk gave Wall Street seven months, but never told them what the script was.

On June 12, at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in New York, SpaceX completed the largest IPO in global history.

Musk rang the opening bell at SpaceX's headquarters in Starbase, Texas, while CFO Bret Johnsen and President Gwynne Shotwell were on site at Nasdaq, ringing the bell at the same time. During the ceremony, Musk said: "I give SpaceX less than a 10% chance of success."

On that day, every banker and trader in the exchange hall wore green sneakers—this was Musk’s idea, symbolizing the IPO's "green shoe option" (overallotment option). According to Bloomberg, these custom Nike sneakers were personally proposed by Musk.

However, behind this IPO was seven months during which top Wall Street investment banks had their rhythm repeatedly disrupted, constantly chasing after events. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as lead underwriters, were left in the dark at multiple key moments—including the $60 billion acquisition of Cursor—forcing them to rewrite the prospectus and investor roadshow materials over and over again.

Reports say the entire process was full of last-minute changes, information asymmetry, and breaking of conventions—all orchestrated by Musk.

Why the sudden IPO? Driven by AI's cash-burning logic

The SpaceX IPO was not an inevitability.

For years, Musk and company executives had publicly stated: SpaceX would only go public once humans regularly travel to Mars. Earlier discussions had only considered spinning off the Starlink satellite internet unit for a separate IPO.

The turning point was AI.

Musk was increasingly convinced that SpaceX needed to build large-scale data centers in space, using Starship rockets to send compute infrastructure into low Earth orbit to support AI development. The timeline for this plan was four to five years, requiring massive amounts of capital. The IPO moved from being an "option" to a "necessity."

In the prospectus, SpaceX painted a $26.5 trillion addressable AI market for investors, clearly positioning itself as a cloud computing and AI infrastructure provider—not just a rocket company.

Mandeep Singh, Global Head of Tech Research at Bloomberg Intelligence, commented: "Overnight they became a new cloud AI infrastructure player; no one truly saw this coming."

Seven months, investment banks chased the whole way

In early December 2025, Goldman and Morgan Stanley received a call from SpaceX executives informing them of a plan to go public. This itself was a surprise—the market had widely expected a Starlink spin-off, not a full IPO.

Musk immediately gave a tight deadline: complete the IPO before his 55th birthday at the end of June. Internally, the project was codenamed "Project Apex."

According to The Information, during the process, the bankers were forced to start at least twice from scratch, redesigning the overall investor narrative:

First Rewrite: In January 2026, Musk decided to merge his AI company xAI into SpaceX. xAI had raised $45 billion since its founding in 2023 (according to PitchBook), but Musk felt this was far from enough and that more capital was needed to chase OpenAI and Anthropic. The merger pegged xAI’s valuation at $250 billion, turning SpaceX from profitable to loss-making. Goldman estimated SpaceX would burn through $120 billion in cash by 2027.

Second Rewrite: On April 21, at an investor roadshow in Texas, Musk suddenly announced SpaceX held a $60 billion option to acquire AI programming tool Cursor. Even the bankers present heard this for the first time. Reports said, "They have learned to improvise."

Afterwards, SpaceX announced successive deals selling data center compute access to Anthropic and Google, further expanding revenue streams. Each new move meant a new round of SEC filings, breaking the IPO convention of "no major changes near the listing date."

For the xAI merger, Morgan Stanley served as financial adviser to both SpaceX and xAI—a rare arrangement in M&A, as buyers and sellers usually have independent advisers. But Musk controlled both companies, so he set the rules. Morgan’s merged valuation: $1.25 trillion.

Pricing also breaks the rules

At the IPO pricing stage, SpaceX also broke conventions.

Usually, a major IPO offers a price range during the roadshow, allowing the market to negotiate before settling on a final price. SpaceX skipped this step and gave a single price: $135 per share, with 555.6 million shares issued.

According to Bloomberg, there’s no precedent for this in the US for deals of this size, but the process was faster and more transparent—especially for retail investors.

Musk once posted in 2020: "I am a loyal supporter of retail investors and will make sure they get top allocation." This time he kept his promise: Retail investors received about $15 billion worth of shares, around 20% of the total issuance; personal investor orders exceeded $100 billion.

By Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX had received hundreds of billions in subscription orders. Thursday at 2 p.m., SpaceX execs and bankers held the final pricing meeting. Friday morning, Morgan Stanley opened at $150, 11% above the issue price.

Green shoe, green shoe: Musk's attention to detail

On listing day, every banker and trader at Nasdaq wore green sneakers—Musk’s idea, echoing the IPO’s "green shoe option" (overallotment choice).

At Goldman’s 41st floor Manhattan HQ, bankers donned custom Nike green shoes, gathering around the screens for the opening. Bloomberg described the decor as making one "feel like overlooking the Manhattan skyline from the surface of Mars." The Nasdaq ball in Times Square was lit up Mars-red, rising slowly instead of dropping.

Worth mentioning: SpaceX also struck a rare arrangement with Goldman—the exercise of the green shoe option comes with no fees payable to the banks.

Why did Musk rush?

Musk accelerated the IPO for three reasons:

  • Political window: Complete the IPO before the US midterm elections, to lock in the period when the current government is relatively friendly to him.
  • Market window: List ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic, to be first to capture investor enthusiasm for AI-themed IPOs.
  • Personal milestone: Complete before his 55th birthday at the end of June.

After SpaceX’s IPO, its market cap surpassed Tesla’s. Some analysts began discussing the possibility of the two companies merging in the future, but others offered caution. Guardian Wealth Advisors’ investment consultant Rand Millwood said: "Globally, only about 15 companies have a market cap over $1 trillion; they are all highly successful, cash-positive businesses—SpaceX is not there yet."

Who's next?

SpaceX’s playbook may be rewriting the rulebook for how major tech companies go public.

Nasdaq and other index providers have adjusted rules, allowing new companies to be included in indices soon after trading begins—a boon for OpenAI, Anthropic, and other IPO candidates, meaning faster passive fund inflows.

SpaceX also proved one thing: advancing a major M&A deal during the IPO process is not only feasible, but need not slow the pace. For big tech firms about to list, this sets a new reference point.

Morgan Stanley handled early trading surveillance; Goldman led prospectus drafting and pricing. As the two banks toasted at Goldman’s Manhattan HQ, OpenAI and Anthropic’s IPOs were already on the way.

Risk Disclaimer and Liability StatementThe market has risks; investments require caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take individual users’ unique investment goals, financial situation, or needs into account. Users should consider whether any opinion, view, or conclusion herein fits their specific circumstances. Investing based on this is at one’s own risk. ```