On 12 June, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch the biggest stock market debut in history, selling 555.6m shares at $135 (£100) each in a bid to raise $75bn. The sale could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire, valuing his Texas-based rockets-to-AI company at around $1.75tn.
Unlike most large IPOs, up to a quarter of the shares will be reserved for individual investors rather than institutions, giving ordinary people in the UK a rare chance to buy in. UK-based platforms AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown are offering clients bids, with minimum subscriptions typically about £1,000. “Normally, it is quite difficult for UK-based retail investors to access US IPOs, but a number of UK brokers and investment platforms are offering access to this one,” said Jason Hollands, managing director of BestInvest. Shares will trade on the Nasdaq in New York.
“SpaceX's $75bn IPO opens to UK investors on 12 June, with individual investors able to bid via AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown.”
The money will fund Musk’s vision of colonising Mars, mining asteroids and putting AI data centres in space. The sci-fi sales prospectus warns that humans must avoid “the same fate as dinosaurs” and plan for an “age of abundance” based in space, because the “light of consciousness” will not be tied to a single planet. SpaceX’s activities already span space exploration, satellite communication, the social media site X and the AI platform Grok.
Scepticism about the feasibility of these ambitions is plentiful, but Musk’s backers note he has beaten doubters before. The share price, set on 11 June based on investor interest, could rise or fall quickly once trading begins. Even those who do not buy directly may end up with exposure if their pension or index-tracking fund invests. UK trusts Edinburgh Worldwide and Baillie Gifford US Growth already hold stakes.
For UK retail investors, the window to apply is short: check with your platform whether they are participating and whether shares can be held in an Isa. The IPO is expected to be heavily oversubscribed, and allocation rules remain unclear – shares may be distributed equally or proportionally. The race to own a piece of Musk’s interstellar empire is on.