New York. Elon Musk may never colonize Mars as promised, but enough investors view the SpaceX founder as a visionary to help him achieve another milestone Friday when the rocket company goes public.

The world’s richest person is poised to become its first trillionaire.

Known for technological breakthroughs as well as bold claims and missed deadlines, Musk is expected to surpass the trillion-dollar mark in what could become the largest initial public offering in history, as investors place bets on a company whose ambitions rival its mounting losses. Ahead of SpaceX’s market debut, Forbes estimated Musk’s net worth at $982.6 billion.

In addition to Musk’s long-standing goal of establishing a million-person colony on Mars, SpaceX has pledged to build space-based outposts, launch orbiting data centers the size of football fields and compete with rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the race to profit from artificial intelligence.

To fund those ambitions, SpaceX requires billions of dollars beyond what it currently earns from its rocket launches and satellite business. Between the start of 2025 and March 31, 2026, the company lost $8.7 billion.

Both institutional investors and retail buyers appear willing to take the risk, paying enough for the 555.6 million shares on offer to raise roughly $75 billion. That would easily surpass the current IPO record held by Saudi Aramco, which raised $26 billion in 2019.

If the IPO succeeds, much of its value will hinge on Musk himself.

The soon-to-be trillionaire — at least on paper — built his fortune through the sale of Zip2 and PayPal, deals that earned him roughly $200 million. He used that money to found SpaceX and invest in Tesla, defying skeptics by creating a reusable rocket business and helping turn electric vehicles into mainstream consumer products.

Musk’s wealth has ballooned largely through stock holdings and compensation packages tied to aggressive performance targets at Tesla and SpaceX. His recent Tesla pay package drew criticism from the Vatican. Investors have also raised concerns about his battles with regulators, his divided attention across multiple companies and his role in the administration of Donald Trump last year.

Still, Tesla’s soaring stock price has rewarded shareholders handsomely. Since its 2010 IPO, Tesla has delivered returns of roughly 20,000%, creating more than $1.2 trillion in investor wealth. That helped lift Musk’s fortune to an estimated $795 billion before the SpaceX offering, according to Forbes.

SpaceX is expected to be the first of three major technology companies to go public this year, with Anthropic and OpenAI expected to follow. The Nasdaq has already revised its rules to allow SpaceX shares to enter index-linked funds within 15 days of listing, accelerating investor exposure to the company.

Not all investors are enthusiastic about the prospect. Pension fund officials representing firefighters, teachers and other public workers in California and New York sent a letter to SpaceX last month criticizing aspects of the IPO structure, including super-voting shares, mandatory arbitration clauses for shareholder disputes and the extent of Musk’s control over the company.

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