SpaceX and OpenAI Race to Trillion-Dollar IPOs

SpaceX plans to list under the ticker SPCX next month with a targeted valuation of $1.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion. OpenAI is expected to file for an initial public offering that could seek a valuation above $1 trillion.

SpaceX reported about $18.7 billion in revenue for 2025. The company operates roughly 9,600 satellites and has made Starlink its primary revenue engine. Starlink produced operating margins near 39% last year, supported by SpaceX’s integrated launch operations. SpaceX has accounted for more than 80% of the world’s mass delivered to orbit since 2023, according to market estimates. The rocket division posted a loss last year because of heavy spending on the Starship program, and the company reported a near $5 billion overall loss even as revenue grew. Rohit Kulkarni of Roth Capital described the launch-market position as “monopolistic.”

OpenAI posted roughly $13.1 billion in revenue for 2025 and had a last private valuation of $852 billion. ChatGPT and related models remain widely used. OpenAI faces competition from Alphabet’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. Analysts say the costs to train and operate advanced AI models are large and will take a significant share of revenue in the coming years. Competing firms that earn substantial advertising and cloud revenue can offset AI spending with those businesses.

Both companies would be small relative to current trillion-dollar public companies. The average annual revenue for S&P 500 firms that have reached trillion-dollar market values exceeds $260 billion. At a $1.75 trillion valuation, SpaceX’s price-to-sales ratio would approach 100, far above major AI hardware and software providers. University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter noted that firms with very high price-to-sales ratios rely on assumptions about future execution.

A recent analysis of the 50 highest-valued IPOs over the past five years found that buying an S&P 500 index fund would have outperformed most of those offerings. An investor who bought at IPO prices across those 50 listings generated an average return of 27% through May 21, compared with a 53% gain for the S&P 500 over the same period. Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Triple D Trading, observed that early-stage buyers before IPOs often capture the largest gains.

Key variables for both listings include future revenue growth, competitive developments and costs. SpaceX will need to convert Starlink’s margins and launch scale into sustained profits. OpenAI will need to manage model competition and heavy infrastructure spending. Public filings, when released, will provide detailed financials and governance terms for investors to evaluate.