SpaceX's upcoming IPO has an internal code name: Project Apex.
That detail came out this week, along with a wave of new reporting on how the deal is actually being structured — and who's fighting to lead it.
[Go here to claim your Pre-IPO shares]([link removed]) before the Nasdaq listing.
This week SpaceX hosted closed-door analyst briefings.
Day one and day two were at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas — the launch facility where the Starship rocket is being built.
Day three moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where analysts toured the Colossus data center that houses the "Macrohard" AI project, xAI's infrastructure play.
One detail stands out: attendees are required to surrender their electronic devices to participate. No phones, no laptops. SpaceX isn't taking chances with leaks before the public S-1 is filed.
This is the standard pre-IPO playbook. Companies brief analysts before the formal roadshow so those analysts can build financial models and publish estimates. About two weeks after these sessions, SpaceX will hold a separate "modeling day" for a select group of Wall Street analysts — the session where the actual financials get shared.
**The formal investor roadshow launches the week of June 8, with 1,500 retail investors invited to tour Starbase. **The Nasdaq debut is targeted for mid-June.
[Here’s how to buy shares]([link removed]) at a big Pre-IPO discount.
Now there is a subplot worth following.
SpaceX has assembled 21 banks for this deal — one of the largest underwriting syndicates put together in recent years. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup are the five active bookrunners. Another 16 banks round out the syndicate, including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Wells Fargo, RBC, and Mizuho.
The lead left position — typically the most prestigious slot — hasn't been officially assigned. SpaceX may not name a lead left bank at all and instead list them alphabetically. No bank appeared on the cover of the confidential prospectus filed in late March. That would be genuinely unprecedented for a deal of this size.
Morgan Stanley has the edge on paper. Banker Michael Grimes helped Musk buy Twitter in 2022, and Morgan Stanley is leaning on Colin Stewart — who led both the CoreWeave and Reddit IPOs — to manage the execution. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has made Project Apex a personal priority for the firm, and Goldman's team includes two of SpaceX's own finance executives as alumni.
Both banks are currently competing for the stabilization agent role, which covers the early hours of trading after the IPO opens.
Selecting the company’s valuation is the bigger issue.
**CFO Bret Johnsen has roughly two months to convince institutional investors that SpaceX is worth $1.75 trillion.**
The framing he's using is unusual: SpaceX is being benchmarked not against Boeing or AT&T, but against Palantir, GE Vernova, and Vertiv — AI infrastructure companies, not legacy aerospace.
That's a deliberate choice. The xAI merger brought Grok, the X platform, and a massive GPU cluster under the SpaceX umbrella.
The pitch is that SpaceX is the leading space launch platform, operates the Starlink network with over 60% the world’s satellites, and plans to launch one-million orbital AI data center satellites.
This week's analyst days are designed to get institutional investors on board with SpaceX ambitious plans.
I’m not waiting for the IPO. And I’m not hoping that Robinhood or E*Trade will give me an allocation in the deal.
[Here’s a link to see how I’m investing now]([link removed]) – 60 days before the IPO.
Ian Wyatt
Editor, IPO Watch
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