The SpaceX IPO is set to price the biggest stock-market debut in history this week, raising about $75bn at a valuation near $1.75tn, with shares trading on Nasdaq from Friday.
But the most consequential thing about Elon Musk’s rocket company going public may have little to do with rockets, or with Musk. It is what the listing does to everyone else.
For the venture-capital industry, SpaceX is the thaw after a long freeze. Just 23 venture-backed tech firms went public in the US in 2025, down from 77 four years earlier, and the capital that funds have tied up in private bets has had nowhere to go.
SpaceX’s debut, already oversubscribed nearly four times over, hands that ecosystem its first large payout in years: early backers such as Antonio Gracias’s Valor Equity Partners, on a roughly 4 per cent stake worth almost $70bn at $135 a share, alongside Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Sequoia, stand to return tens of billions to their own investors, who will recycle much of it into the next wave of startups.
The listing will also mint thousands of employee millionaires.The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
