Next week, Elon Musk's SpaceX will launch the biggest stock market flotation in history – and for the first time, ordinary investors in the UK will have a shot at buying into his dream of colonising Mars.
On 12 June, 555.6m shares in the Texas-based company will start trading on the New York Nasdaq at $135 (£100) each. The sale aims to raise at least $75bn, valuing SpaceX at around $1.75tn – larger than AI rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, according to the BBC. Up to a quarter of those shares may be reserved for individual investors rather than institutions, a far bigger slice than is typical for a large initial public offering.
“SpaceX shares go on sale 12 June at $135 each, with up to a quarter reserved for individual investors.”
Musk plans to use the cash to expand his existing ventures – the Starlink satellite network, the controversial AI platform Grok (now part of SpaceX via xAI), and the social media site X – and to fund futuristic ambitions: mining asteroids, building AI data centres in space, and, as the company's prospectus puts it, ensuring humans avoid "the same fate as dinosaurs" by creating an "age of abundance" where the "light of consciousness" is not tied to a single planet.
For UK investors keen to get a piece of the action, several platforms are offering access. AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown are taking applications, with minimum subscriptions typically around £1,000. "Normally, it is quite difficult for UK-based retail investors to access US IPOs," said Jason Hollands, managing director of BestInvest. "A number of UK brokers and investment platforms are offering access to this one, sensing both strong client demand and, no doubt, a commercial opportunity."
But the risks are considerable. The final share price will be set on 11 June based on investor demand; if the IPO is oversubscribed, it is not yet clear how shares will be allocated. Once trading begins, the stock could quickly rise or fall depending on whether the wider market judges the initial price too high or too low. Even if you don't buy directly, you may end up owning SpaceX shares through pension funds or index-tracking funds that automatically buy into the biggest companies.
Musk, the world's richest person with a net worth that passed $500bn in October 2025, could become a trillionaire if the flotation succeeds. Yet his political interventions – including a bitter feud with Donald Trump after the US election – have already cost his other businesses: analysts blamed a slump in Tesla sales in 2025 partly on customers turning against him. For those tempted by the promise of space-age profits, the question remains: is a ticket to Mars worth the price of entry?