WASHINGTON – Investors eyeing SpaceX's potential blockbuster IPO may need to brace themselves as CEO Elon Musk balances his risky quest to reach Mars with growing the revenue-rich Starlink satellite broadband business that would offer more reliable shareholder returns.
SpaceX, which transformed space travel with reusable rockets and built a global satellite broadband network, is targeting a listing next year that could raise more than $25 ?billion at a valuation exceeding $1 ?trillion, which would rank among the largest initial public offerings in history.
Musk has always maintained that sending humans to Mars was his lifelong ambition. That should temper expectations that a publicly-listed SpaceX would narrow its focus on revenue-generating parts of the business like expanding Starlink into a direct-to-cell service or building space-based data centers, analysts say.
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