SpaceX shoots for the moon with $1.78tn IPO

SpaceX is poised for a $1.78 trillion IPO—nearly double its last private valuation—marking one of the most audacious public market entries in history. The massive price tag isn’t based on current profits but on Elon Musk’s moonshot ambitions: colonizing Mars, dominating AI, and building a space-based social media and satellite empire. As the FT’s George Hammond explains, investors are betting on Musk’s vision more than on financial fundamentals, with the company’s valuation at 92 times its $19 billion in revenue—far beyond even big tech peers. Yet skepticism lingers: analysts peg SpaceX at closer to $780 billion based on current operations. The IPO comes amid growing market jitters over AI-driven stocks, with investors possibly unwinding positions ahead of new tech listings like OpenAI and Anthropic. Meanwhile, Ireland faces a paradox: despite a €9.2 billion budget surplus fueled by massive corporate tax from Apple, Microsoft, and Eli Lilly, it’s spending so fast it may need to borrow €30 billion to fund future needs—raising alarms about overreliance on a few multinationals. The European Central Bank has also clamped down on Revolut’s product launches, highlighting Europe’s struggle to balance innovation with regulation. This episode reveals a world where the line between visionary ambition and financial reckoning is thinner than ever.