Goldman Gets the Top Spot

SpaceX has picked Goldman Sachs as lead left underwriter for its upcoming IPO, according to people familiar with the matter cited by both Reuters and CNBC. That's the most important slot on the prospectus — the bank that runs the books and takes the biggest cut.

The full underwriting lineup: Goldman Sachs, then Morgan Stanley, then Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase. Five of Wall Street's biggest names lined up for one deal.

This is not a surprise pick. The last time Musk took a company public was Tesla in 2010. Goldman led that offering too, according to CNBC. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan were also on that deal. Musk is running the same playbook.

The Prospectus Is Almost Here

SpaceX could make its S-1 prospectus public as soon as Wednesday, per CNBC sources. The company confidentially filed with the SEC last month — that part was already known. Going public with the filing is the next concrete milestone before a roadshow and eventual listing.

According to TechStackIPO, which has been tracking the filing closely, the public S-1 was expected in the May 18–22 window, with a roadshow beginning the week of June 8. That timeline still appears on track.

The Numbers Are Staggering

SpaceX's valuation has been a moving target. Musk himself pegged it at $1.25 trillion when he merged SpaceX with his AI company xAI in February, per CNBC. Bloomberg reported a $1.75 trillion pre-IPO valuation as of March 2026. TechStackIPO puts the target range at $1.75T to $2T.

The target raise? Reuters reported $75 billion back in April. Saudi Aramco's 2019 IPO raised $25.6 billion and held the global record for years. SpaceX is targeting three times that.

For context: according to CNBC, only two tech companies — Facebook and Alibaba — have been valued at even $100 billion after their first trading day on U.S. exchanges. SpaceX is coming to market at potentially 20 times that.

A New Revenue Story: AI Compute

On May 6, 2026, Anthropic announced a compute infrastructure deal with SpaceX to use the Colossus supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee for AI model training. Anthropic confirmed this in a press release.

Colossus houses over 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs — one of the largest single AI training clusters on the planet.

Analysts on the All-In Podcast (Episode 208, published May 7) modeled the Anthropic deal as a potential $2 to $5 billion incremental annual revenue stream at hyperscaler margins. It represents a brand-new revenue segment — AI compute infrastructure — layered on top of launch services, Starlink broadband, and Starshield government contracts.

SpaceX's pitch to investors includes rockets plus internet plus government defense contracts plus AI compute. The valuation math gets complicated fast.

The OpenAI Lawsuit Shadow

Timing is everything. The prospectus drops just days after Musk took a loss in federal court. An advisory jury in Oakland ruled Monday that Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman over claims Altman broke a promise to keep the nonprofit structure intact. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately adopted that verdict, per CNBC.

Musk called it a "calendar technicality" and vowed to appeal. But it's a public defeat right before the biggest financial event of his career.

Underwriters generally prefer clean headlines in the days before a roadshow.

What Mainstream Coverage Is Missing

Most outlets are treating this like a finance story. It's also a geopolitical story. SpaceX holds Starshield contracts with the U.S. government — classified national security satellite work. The company's vertical integration means it controls launch, orbit, broadband, and now AI compute infrastructure. That concentration of capability in a single private company going public has raised few questions in the financial press.

Also: the WEEX crypto source floating a $15 trillion valuation and $300 billion raise target deserves a hard pass. Those numbers have zero credible sourcing and appear to be pure noise. Ignore them.

What Retail Investors Need to Know

SpaceX is promising a 30% retail allocation — the largest in IPO history according to CFO James McNeil, as cited by Bloomberg in January. Individual investors, not just institutions, could get a real shot at shares.

This is a company with $15.5 billion in 2025 revenue (per company disclosure cited by TechStackIPO) being priced at potentially $1.75 trillion. That's a revenue multiple of over 100x. Profitable? Possibly. Priced for perfection? Absolutely.

The prospectus drops soon. Read it before you wire any money.