HAWTHORNE, Calif. — SpaceX is moving fast to build on its historic stock-market debut, with bankers preparing a bond sale of at least $20 billion that would stand as the company's first investment-grade debt offering, according to people familiar with the plans.
Calls with investors could begin as soon as Monday, setting up one of the largest corporate debt deals of the year and underscoring just how much appetite there is for a piece of Elon Musk's newly public space and connectivity giant.
From Equity to Credit Markets
The bond plan lands only days after SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering in history, raising roughly $75 billion in its Nasdaq debut under the ticker SPCX. Where the IPO sold ownership stakes, the new offering taps the credit markets, giving the company a deep, long-term pool of capital without diluting shareholders further.
A move into investment-grade debt is itself a milestone. It signals that lenders view SpaceX not as a speculative venture but as a durable enterprise with predictable, recurring revenue — much of it from the Starlink broadband network that now serves customers in more than 160 countries.
Fuel for an AI-Driven Expansion
Proceeds are expected to refinance a roughly $20 billion bridge loan that SpaceX took on earlier this year to fund its acquisition of xAI, the artificial-intelligence company behind the Grok assistant. That deal, alongside the recent all-stock acquisition of AI coding firm Cursor, reflects how aggressively SpaceX is positioning itself at the intersection of aerospace and AI.
