QATAR PERSPECTIVE

Doha, May 21, 2026. The stock market introduction of SpaceX, announced this week through a regulatory S-1 filing, has captured the attention of Al Jazeera, which has made it the top economic story from Doha. The Qatari channel has immediately placed the event in a precise regional context: the target valuation of $1,750 billion would surpass the previous global record set by Saudi Aramco during its introduction to the Riyadh Stock Exchange in 2019, at $1,700 billion. This comparison is not insignificant in a Gulf region where competition between financial centers and between sovereign capitals is permanent.

According to the publicly disclosed filing on May 20, SpaceX would seek to raise up to $75 billion in this operation, making it potentially the largest IPO in American market history. The listing date would be set for June 12, with the launch of subscriptions expected as early as June 11. Elon Musk would retain his three positions as CEO, technical director, and chairman of the board after the listing, with a compensation tied to extreme objectives: establishing a permanent human colony on Mars and building orbital data centers with a computing capacity equivalent to 100 terawatts.

The financial engine of SpaceX remains its Starlink network today. The constellation of around 10,000 satellites accounts for the bulk of the $18.67 billion in revenues recorded in 2025, from individual, government, and corporate clients. The briefing on the subject notes that Starlink generated $11.4 billion on its own last year. In parallel, an agreement to lease computing capacity has been concluded with the artificial intelligence company Anthropic for $1.25 billion per month until May 2029. Musk's xAI division, on the other hand, remains in deficit according to the data disclosed in the S-1.

Al Jazeera notes that the listing would take place in a busy week for the company: the next test flight of the new-generation Starship rocket, initially scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed to later in the week. This launch directly conditions the lunar and Martian ambitions as well as the wider deployment of Starlink. The total market potential targeted by SpaceX is estimated by the company itself at $285,000 billion, a projection largely dominated by embryonic and non-profitable artificial intelligence activities.