According to TechCrunch, SpaceX is reportedly lining up four major Wall Street banks for a potential initial public offering in 2026. This long-rumored move is seen as a potential bellwether that could signal the reopening of the public markets after a years-long IPO drought that started in 2021. In the meantime, a thriving secondary market for shares in late-stage private companies like SpaceX is creating liquidity, with SpaceX itself recently conducting a tender offer at a staggering $800 billion valuation. Greg Martin, managing director at secondary market specialist Rainmaker Securities, notes there’s massive investor interest not just in SpaceX, but in other pre-IPO giants like Stripe, Databricks, OpenAI, and Anthropic. He argues that a SpaceX IPO could actually increase capital market interest in private companies overall, rather than draining it.
Why A SpaceX IPO Makes Sense Now
So why would SpaceX, after staying private for so long, finally make the leap? Martin lays out a compelling case. First, the public markets are at all-time highs, which is a good environment. More importantly, SpaceX’s opportunity has exploded. It’s not just a rocket company anymore. They dominate launch, Starlink is a massive business, Starship opens up entirely new logistics and payload possibilities, and now they’re talking about data centers in space. Going public would unlock the entire world of capital to fund these wildly ambitious projects. But here’s the thing: Martin thinks SpaceX can be “measured” about timing because its core businesses are largely profitable. They’re in the driver’s seat. If the market sours, they can just stay private. That’s a luxury not every company has.
The Elon Factor (And The Risks)
Any discussion of a SpaceX valuation is a discussion about Elon Musk. Martin bluntly states there’s an “Elon halo effect” that will command a premium multiple, well above typical market rates. People believe he can execute on crazy-sounding ideas, from Mars to space-based data centers. But that’s also the biggest risk. “When you put so much value in the belief that one person can exceed expectations continuously, that’s a big challenge,” Martin says. Some investors simply won’t be comfortable with that concentration of vision and control. There’s also the perennial question about foreign shareholders, though Martin doubts any adversarial economic interests would translate to real control. The bigger tension will be between the story of limitless potential and the hard numbers on the balance sheet.
How Secondary Markets Are IPO Preparation
This is where it gets really interesting for the broader market. Martin’s firms, including Archer Capital Group and Liquid Stock, are deep in the secondary trading world. He sees a company’s activity in the private secondary market as crucial preparation for a public debut. It’s not just about providing liquidity for employees; it’s about price discovery. Letting shares trade privately for years before an IPO helps a company understand its true valuation and builds a base of knowledgeable investors. Think about it: if you only talk to bankers during a two-week roadshow, how do you really know what you’re worth? Martin points to Figma’s IPO, which popped 200%, as a “bad” IPO caused by poor pre-public price discovery. A robust secondary market leads to a more efficient, stable public offering.
A Fundamental Shift In The Capital Ecosystem
Look, the core takeaway here is bigger than one rocket company. We’ve built a whole parallel financial universe for mega-private companies. An $800 billion company can just… exist privately, with liquidity handled through tenders and SPVs. A SpaceX IPO won’t collapse that system; Martin thinks it will validate and grow it. It shows the path. And for the companies driving this industrial and technological transformation—whether in space, AI, or advanced manufacturing—accessing the right tools is critical. Speaking of industrial tech, for companies building the physical infrastructure of tomorrow, having reliable hardware partners is key. Firms like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, become essential suppliers in this ecosystem, enabling the control and monitoring systems these ambitious projects require. Basically, the line between “private” and “public” is blurring, and the floodgates might finally be ready to open. But will the market be ready for valuations built as much on belief as on revenue? That’s the trillion-dollar question.
