People familiar with the matter said that Elon Musk's space exploration technology company SpaceX was enthusiastically sought after by investors on the eve of its initial public offering (IPO). The current cumulative subscription demand has exceeded US$250 billion, far exceeding the US$75 billion the company plans to raise, and is expected to become one of the largest IPOs in history.
Multiple people familiar with the matter revealed that based on the current subscription situation, SpaceX's oversubscription ratio for this issuance is approximately 3.5 times to 4 times the planned issuance size, showing the market's strong confidence in the company's prospects. It is reported that a number of funds focusing on long-term holdings have submitted "considerable" purchase orders. Musk himself briefly appeared in some online meetings with potential investors during the roadshow to boost market confidence.
People familiar with the matter said SpaceX is still in the IPO marketing road show stage. According to the original arrangement, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen will attend a luncheon hosted by Morgan Stanley Co-President Dan Simkowitz in Midtown Manhattan, New York, on the 9th to discuss the company's business and issuance arrangements face-to-face with about 300 institutional investors.
Market participants expect that the final pricing and allotment results of this IPO will be determined on Thursday afternoon. The currently disclosed subscription scale is still an intentional subscription, and the final allotment amount must be subject to the official pricing. Several people familiar with the matter pointed out that some large institutional investors often submit orders late in the IPO process, and the overall subscription data may still change in the future.
The high-profile IPO comes at a time of heightened volatility in global capital markets. The Nasdaq Composite Index has recently continued to fall after experiencing its largest single-day decline in more than a year. Bitcoin prices also fell 2.8% on Tuesday, down about 37% from the high in January this year. Some analysts believe that part of the source of the recent market selling pressure may be investors raising funds to participate in the SpaceX IPO reducing their holdings of other assets.
In roadshow materials and IPO filing documents, SpaceX focused on the growth potential of its rocket launch business and Starlink satellite Internet business. Over the past three years, SpaceX missions have accounted for "a majority share" of the total mass put into orbit, according to the company's presentation to investors, underscoring its dominance of the global commercial launch market.
In addition to traditional aerospace and satellite Internet, SpaceX also outlines a new blueprint for investors with artificial intelligence and space data centers as the core. The company proposed in the roadshow that its AI-related business faces potential market opportunities of up to US$23 trillion, and claimed that SpaceX is "the only company that can break through the limitations of ground infrastructure and build AI computing capabilities in space" and expects to see "extremely strong demand" in the future.
In a presentation to investors, SpaceX pointed out that the United States has lagged behind China in power production and computing power expansion, partly due to the slow progress and high resistance to large-scale infrastructure projects in the United States. The company believes that by using SpaceX's launch capabilities to deploy data centers and related infrastructure in space, it is expected to alleviate the problem of limited growth of ground power and computing power to a certain extent.
"By significantly lowering the cost of access to space, we are able to expand the company's mission to address some of the most pressing challenges on Earth." SpaceX said in the materials, "This includes striving to provide Internet access and common human knowledge to more than 3 billion people who are not yet connected to the Internet through the Starlink program."
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the specific terms of this IPO and the above-mentioned market expectations. Information related to this transaction is still non-public, and many people participating in the roadshow requested anonymity. At the same time, under the intertwined influence of investor sentiment and the macro environment, whether SpaceX's high valuation and oversubscription can be continuously verified in the secondary market performance will remain the focus of the capital market.