Carvana stock soars after S&P 500 inclusion announcement

By William Gavin

The rocket-launch company is also reportedly eyeing a public debut

SpaceX, which dominates the rocket-launch business, is set to carry around 90% of the world's payload into space this year, according to Elon Musk.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is already one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Now, it's set to be worth more than half of Tesla - the electric-vehicle maker he also runs - and is said to be exploring going public.

The rocket maker is planning a secondary share sale that would value it at $800 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. SpaceX was valued at about $400 billion after its last share sale.

In less than six years, SpaceX has grown its valuation by more than 22 times. It was worth just $36 billion in March 2020 after a reported $500 million fundraise.

That growth has led to interest in an eventual public listing, which SpaceX could pursue as soon as the second half of next year, the Information reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. That move would involve the entire company, including SpaceX's satellite internet service, Starlink.

SpaceX has considered spinning off Starlink into a separate public business since at least 2020, although Musk had said that would only make sense once its revenue growth becomes more predictable.

"Maybe at some point SpaceX should become a public company, despite all the downsides of being public," Musk said last month at Tesla's (TSLA) annual shareholder meeting, after decrying the "parasitic load" of being a public company.

A representative for SpaceX did not immediately return a request for comment.

With an $800 billion valuation, SpaceX would be worth more than half of Tesla, which has a market capitalization of around $1.43 trillion.

Despite inching closer to Tesla's valuation, SpaceX generates far less revenue, even as it dominates the rocket-launch business. Musk has said that SpaceX will carry around 90% of the world's payload into space this year.

In June, Musk said SpaceX was on track to generate around $15.5 billion in revenue for 2025. Although SpaceX doesn't disclose its financials, the company is estimated to have brought in about $13.1 billion in 2024, according to Payload, a space-industry publication. Starlink accounted for $8.2 billion of that revenue.

See More: SpaceX hits a new milestone that shows why it's dominating modern spaceflight

For 2025, Tesla is expected to report sales of $95.2 billion, a 2.5% decline compared to a year earlier, according to estimates compiled by FactSet. That puts Tesla's expected revenue at more than six times as much as SpaceX's.

The two companies account for much of Musk's $496.1 billion net worth, according to Forbes. The world's richest individual owns around 42% of SpaceX and has a 15% stake in Tesla, although that could grow to nearly 29% under the terms of his recently awarded compensation package.

The new share sale would make SpaceX worth more than OpenAI - the current most valuable private company, which was recently valued at $500 billion after a reported deal that saw existing investors purchase shares owned by OpenAI employees.

It would also make SpaceX the 13th-most valuable U.S. company, behind JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Walmart (WMT) and 10 other firms that are projected to haul in significantly more revenue this year, according to FactSet estimates. Of those 12 firms, chip maker Broadcom (AVGO) is expected to generate the least revenue this calendar year, at $63 billion - though that's still well above the $15.5 billion that Musk projected for SpaceX.

See More: AST SpaceMobile and Starlink may prove friend, not foe, to these wireless stocks

-William Gavin

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