Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) shares have been priced at US$135 per share for its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, US, on 12 June, with Elon Musk’s company already raising US$75Bn of net proceeds from this offering before shares begin trading.

This could rise to almost US$86Bn if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock in full.

At that value, chief executive Elon Musk, who is already the richest man in the world, is set to become the Earth’s first trillionaire and will keep control of the board and corporate decisions.

It its prospectus, SpaceX said it would use these huge funds to further develop its launch infrastructure and vehicles, extend its use of artificial intelligence (AI), including in space, and expand its Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation.

“We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to fund our growth strategy, including the expansion of our AI compute infrastructure and enhancements to our launch infrastructure and launch vehicles,” SpaceX said, “and increases in the scale and capacity of our satellite constellations, and any remaining amounts for general corporate purposes.”

A considerable amount of funding, and shareholder interest, will go into SpaceX’s Starship launcher and its programmes to reach Mars and build facilities on the Moon.

First launched in 2023, Starship is designed to be a fully reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering 100 tonnes into Earth orbit and enabling rapid turnaround times. Future generations of Starship are being designed to double this payload capacity.

To date, SpaceX has executed 12 Starship flight tests, with its 12th flight test in May 2026, debuting the next-generation Starship vehicle and super-heavy booster, powered by the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase.

SpaceX expects Starship to commence payload delivery into orbit in H2 2026. Its innovations of recapturing the booster after use and the “chopstick” arms on the same tower it launched from could “facilitate rapid refurbishment and reuse, and multiple launches per day at reduced costs,” the company said.

This could enable SpaceX to launch a second and third generation of Starlink LEO satellites far more rapidly than using its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets can currently do so.

Maritime connectivity

Starlink and the development of flat-panel antennas have revolutionised maritime communications, bringing high-speed internet connectivity to even the smallest workboats and to crews on merchant and offshore vessels.

Since the launch of Starlink in 2020, nearly all of the main shipping and shipmanagement companies, and much of the offshore support vessel sector, have installed some terminal hardware to communicate with the 9,600 Starlink broadband and mobile satellites in orbit.

But, these satellites have short lifetimes, of five to seven years depending on the amount of onboard propellant required to maintain their LEO and remain clear of atmospheric drag.

Therefore, SpaceX needs to continue replenishing its constellation just to remain at current levels and accelerate its launches to expand capacity.

Its Falcon 9 launcher completes Starlink satellite launches from sites in Florida and California at least four a week, with the last missions on 25, 26, 29 and 30 May and 3 and 4 June, and the next planned for 7, 8, 10, 12 and 14 June 2026.

SpaceX overtook competitors within the maritime communications market, especially those offering connectivity over geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites as it was cheaper.

But vessel owners often use LEO services for crew welfare and passenger services, many as complementary to their GEO safety and operational communications.

There are mandatory IMO requirements for vessels to carry and use terminals over Inmarsat GEO or Iridium LEO, both L-band constellations for the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System and other ship tracking and security needs.

“We expect to commence deploying our next-generation V3 satellites, designed to offer one Tbps of downlink capacity per satellite, using Starship in H2 2026,” said SpaceX.

“We expect that a single Starship launch will be capable of deploying up to 60 V3 satellites to LEO, representing a potential twenty-fold increase in Starlink downlink capacity deployed relative to a Falcon 9 launch.”

LEO, launcher competition

There is also competition coming in providing high-speed LEO connectivity, with Amazon Leo soon ready to provide services to vessels. It will initially comprise 3,000 mini-satellites and have enough capacity to support hundreds of millions of endpoints and terminals worldwide, Amazon said.

Its last launch mission, on 29 May by United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Atlas V rocket, deployed another 29 Amazon Leo satellites into LEO, taking the total in orbit to 331.

Another Atlas V launch with Amazon Leo satellites is planned for July, while there are 10 planned SpaceX’s Falcon 9 missions in 2026 and Arianespace has two more this year.

There is also competition in satellite launching with ULA and Arianespace now, and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur and Blue Origin’s New Glenn coming soon.

Artificial intelligence

SpaceX’s plans for AI include launching and building AI compute infrastructure in space to use solar power, and to develop and train frontier models at lower cost and higher velocity, all to enhance integrated AI platforms across Grok and X.

AI is also having a revolutionary influence on maritime and offshore, with more applications being implemented across fleets for rapid information and intelligence, optimising operations and voyages, enhancing maintenance and shipmanagement, and automating documentation and administration.

With new technology, power and benefits, AI will be further integrated into shipping and offshore operations, potentially cutting manning and taking over more functions.

xAI, acquired by SpaceX in 2023, has become a leader in building and scaling terrestrial AI compute infrastructure and has a gigawatt-scale AI training cluster.

“We believe that the key constraints in the continued growth of AI are physical chip manufacturing, data centre infrastructure, and power generation,” said SpaceX. “The future of AI will be determined by the control of the physical stack.”

Terafab, a chip manufacturing initiative with Tesla and Intel, aims to extend SpaceX’s vertical integration to chip design and manufacturing to alleviate potential future chip shortages, optimise compute performance, and potentially reduce overall compute costs.

“We are rapidly constructing AI compute infrastructure, starting on Earth, with the goal of extending to space, at industry-leading pace and cost efficiency,” said SpaceX.

After the IPO, Mr Musk will have a massive chest of finance to accelerate internal investments and technology developments and aim at potential acquisitions or political aspirations.

He will still have considerable control over SpaceX as founder, chief executive, chief technical officer and chairman of the board.

Mr Musk will hold around 82.4% of the common stock and the voting power, or 82.3% if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares.

“As a result, Mr Musk will be able to control the outcome of matters requiring shareholder approval,” SpaceX said.

“This includes the majority of the voting power and election of a majority of our board.”

SpaceX admits it will be a “controlled company” under the corporate governance rules of Nasdaq and following completion of the IPO.

“As a result, we intend to rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.”