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More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/. https://www.ft.com/content/625ae455-3b7b-454e-82f3-b22414459cc0?syn-25a6b1a6=1 Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to footer OPEN SIDE NAVIGATION MENU OPEN SEARCH BAR My Account HOME WORLD UK COMPANIES TECH MARKETS CLIMATE OPINION LEX STOCK PICKING GAME LIFE & ARTS HOW TO SPEND IT FT Digital Edition Portfolio myFT MENU SEARCH HOME WORLD UK COMPANIES TECH MARKETS CLIMATE OPINION LEX STOCK PICKING GAME LIFE & ARTS HOW TO SPEND IT My Account Opinion Business Insight SpaceX IPO shows Musk’s genius is in mythmaking How exactly the company plans to support its gargantuan valuation is not obvious RICHARD WATERSAdd to myFT SpaceX hopes to secure a valuation of $1.78tn, which would make it the world’s seventh most valuable company © USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect SpaceX IPO shows Musk’s genius is in mythmaking on x (opens in a new window) SpaceX IPO shows Musk’s genius is in mythmaking on facebook (opens in a new window) SpaceX IPO shows Musk’s genius is in mythmaking on linkedin (opens in a new window) Share Save current progress 0% Richard Waters Published4 HOURS AGO 96 Print this page Could you be the FT’s top trader?Try our new stock picking game Of all the extraordinary things about the SpaceX IPO, the most extraordinary might be this: it is impossible to tell what this company will be 10, five or even two years from now. And, to judge from the way its share sale has been conducted, that is just the way Elon Musk wants it. SpaceX confirmed on Wednesday that it hopes to secure a valuation of $1.78tn, something that would make it the world’s seventh most valuable company. How exactly it plans to support that gargantuan valuation is not obvious. The latest version of SpaceX dates back only to February of this year. That is when Musk merged it with xAI, an unexpected deal that, out of the blue, made AI its most important business. SpaceX had always listed its main ambition as making humans a multi-planetary species, with a new home on Mars. Now AI dominates its plans (xAI accounted for more than three quarters of capital spending in the first quarter) and its business opportunities (93 per cent of its addressable markets are said to revolve around AI). SpaceX is now overwhelmingly an AI play. Musk’s fans, as usual, have taken this in their stride. To a more jaundiced eye, it reeks of opportunism. Musk has shown an aptitude for constantly shuffling his businesses to come up with what investors are most likely to back at any given time. When solar-panel maker Solar City was struggling, he merged it into Tesla and rebranded the carmaker as an alternative energy conglomerate. When the company formerly known as Twitter struggled to rebuild its advertising after his contentious takeover, it was combined with xAI. Until this year’s merger, it was looking increasingly difficult for xAI to keep up with its biggest competitors on what had become their most important activity: amassing vast amounts of cash. OpenAI and Anthropic have already raised $175bn between them from the private markets this year, even before the IPOs they are now preparing. In its filings ahead of the IPO, SpaceX uses a single narrative to support the xAI deal: the chance to leapfrog competitors by putting AI data centres in space. How long this will take is another matter. SpaceX launched just over 2,200 metric tons into orbit last year: Musk says his company will need to launch 1mn tons a year to be a player in the orbital data centre business. Will this convergence of rockets and AI one day generate the returns that justify catapulting SpaceX into the ranks of the world’s top companies? Perhaps. But the history of Musk’s ventures suggests that the narrative will have changed long before it gets to that point. SpaceX’s rockets and satellite communications network, like Tesla’s electric cars, are certainly impressive achievements. But Musk’s real genius lies in mythmaking. Last year, the combined operating cash flow of all the businesses operating under the SpaceX and Tesla banners was $21.5bn, only a slight increase from the year before. Compare that with another AI rival, Alphabet, which last year alone increased its operating cash flow by nearly $40bn. The most curious part of the SpaceX sales pitch involves the thing that is said, in its filings, to represent by far its biggest opportunity: Enterprise AI applications. Musk has talked of creating a new AI platform for businesses, a project he calls Macrohard. But this merits only the most cursory of descriptions and Grok, xAI’s frontier AI model, primarily supports a consumer service. Recommended Markets InsightChris Watling America’s AI boom is carrying more than investors admit Macrohard is said to be a joint project with Tesla. Another joint project is a planned chipmaking plant, known as Terafab. Not surprisingly, strategic overlaps like these, along with Musk’s history of dealmaking, have led many to predict that a union of SpaceX and Tesla is all but inevitable. For now, at least, the stock market seems to be happy with the idea of two Musk companies, rather than just one. Tesla’s shares have held up well in the run-up to the SpaceX IPO. Future market gyrations, though, may change that calculation. All of this makes SpaceX the perfect stock market avatar for its time: a story of boundless opportunity, for financial markets that have proved unusually willing to place a long-term bet on tech. What better time to float such a tantalising and ill-defined collection of assets and capabilities, with Musk as the impresario at the centre, conjuring up new markets almost at will? The main question for new investors in SpaceX is how long this state of affairs will last. Musk’s mythmaking perfectly fits the times. In the end, though, real cash flow has a way of winning out. richard.waters@ft.com Unhedged: Chart of the Week, Saturdays The Unhedged team tells the big stories from the world of finance in a simple, striking visual format Newsletter sign up for Unhedged: Chart of the Week - subscription removedNewsletter sign up for Unhedged: Chart of the Week Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026. All rights reserved. Reuse this content (opens in new window) CommentsJump to comments section Follow the topics in this article Richard Waters Add to myFT Business Insight Add to myFT US companies Add to myFT IPOs Add to myFT Technology sector Add to myFT Latest on SpaceX SpaceX Goldman Sachs expects SpaceX’s AI revenue to increase 100-fold by 2030 SpaceX SpaceX pitches investors $1.78tn valuation in historic IPO SpaceX SpaceX wins tax exemption for $55bn AI chip plant despite local backlash Markets InsightRodney Comegys Index investing will evolve with mega IPOs Weekend Warriors And the FTAV charts quiz winner is . . .  The Long ViewKatie Martin SpaceX and the ‘enshittification’ of markets IPOs Investors race to get exposure to SpaceX ahead of IPO FT News Briefing podcast12 min listen SpaceX IPO ignites an investor frenzy Comments Useful links Support Help Centre Contact Us About Us Accessibility Careers Suppliers Legal & Privacy Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Manage Cookies Copyright Slavery Statement & Policies Services Share News Tips Securely Individual Subscriptions Professional Subscriptions Republishing Executive Job Search Advertise with the FT Follow the FT on X FT Channels FT Schools Tools Portfolio FT App FT Digital Edition FT Edit Alerts Hub Business School Rankings Subscription Manager News feed Newsletters Currency Converter Community & Events FT Live Events FT Forums FT Leaders Academy More from the FT Group Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2026. 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