SpaceX courts international banks as IPO preparations accelerate

SpaceX has quietly opened preliminary, non‑binding discussions with banks outside the United States as it prepares options for a potential initial public offering. The outreach is aimed at widening the pool of prospective underwriters and international distribution channels, reflecting both the global footprint of SpaceX’s customers and the scale of reporting about a very large capital raise. Media reports have put the company’s target at around $50 billion and suggested a possible mid‑June 2026 listing window — figures that help explain why SpaceX is canvassing a broader set of bookrunners to secure deep pockets and global placement capabilities. The timing and the size of any deal are not fixed; SpaceX appears to be preserving strategic optionality while it gauges market receptivity. Technical milestones at the company, notably a planned March test flight of a revised Starship v3 from a newly completed Pad 2 at Starbase, are likely to be pivotal in shaping investor sentiment and the final deal structure. Separate, early discussions about potentially linking xAI or other units to a public vehicle add a further layer of complexity, creating questions about how different businesses would be valued and governed within any combined offering. For international banks, participation offers access to sizeable underwriting fees and prestige but also raises compliance, national‑security and reputational considerations tied to cross‑border disclosure, export controls and the prominence of SpaceX’s leadership. Adding non‑U.S. bookrunners could increase allocation flexibility for overseas institutional and retail channels, but would also complicate legal, tax and roadshow logistics and require reconciling multi‑jurisdictional regulatory obligations. By engaging foreign banks early, SpaceX gains negotiating leverage over syndicate terms and the ability to craft a distribution strategy that could improve pricing if global demand materializes. The approach underscores that a megafloat of this kind is a transnational undertaking: bank selection will signal whether management prioritizes valuation maximization, distribution breadth or tighter control over investor composition. Ultimately, the outreach appears to be a deliberate market‑sounding exercise designed to keep multiple execution paths open while key technical and corporate decisions — including any alignment with xAI and the outcome of upcoming Starship tests — crystallize.