JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is personally stepping up to pitch the SpaceX IPO to clients, an unusual move that signals both the scale and pressure surrounding the offering.
Elon Musk’s space exploration, satellite internet, and AI company is targeting a $75 billion raise at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, which would make it one of the ten most valuable companies in the United States.
That valuation would place SpaceX ahead of even Tesla, underscoring just how transformative a successful listing would be for Musk’s broader business empire.
Dimon is set to speak at a special event alongside SpaceX’s COO Gwynne Shotwell and CFO Bret Johnson, with the pitch aimed at the bank’s high-net-worth clients and retail investors.
Dimon has been pushing to leverage JPMorgan’s branch network of roughly 5,000 locations to support the offering and broaden the buyer base beyond traditional institutional investors.
Bank of America is hosting a similar event with Shotwell and Johnson to pitch the stock to its own clients, reflecting just how wide the sales operation has become.
A total of 23 banks are reportedly participating in the offering, led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, with underwriting fees expected to reach around $500 million.
No other IPO in history has raised more than $30 billion, meaning SpaceX is pushing well beyond the boundaries of what Wall Street has previously managed to absorb.
The offering also breaks from standard IPO procedure in notable ways, with Musk and his management team having already set the price at $135 per share more than a week before the expected debut.
Typically, banks run a price-discovery process before settling on a final listing price the day before a company goes public, making SpaceX’s approach a significant departure from convention.
Index funds are also adding SpaceX stock at Musk’s demand, even though SpaceX does not meet multiple S&P 500 requirements, including a GAAP profit requirement, raising further questions about the process.
SpaceX’s current financials value the business at 100 times sales, and the company has not completed a direct funding round since January 2023, when it was worth $137 billion.
Since then, tender offers and an implied valuation of $1.25 trillion from its merger with xAI in February have driven the number dramatically higher.
The pressure on Dimon and other top bankers extends beyond SpaceX itself, with IPOs from Anthropic and OpenAI reportedly waiting in the wings later this year.
History offers some caution here, as major listings including Meta Platforms and Uber both fell sharply in value shortly after their own market debuts.
