Update, August 19, 2026: The December 2025 story was Musk endorsing reporting — not an S-1. SpaceX later filed and, on June 11, 2026, priced a record primary raise at $135 a share / about $75 billion / $1.77 trillion. Tesery’s later notes: the $135 pricing and the Nasdaq open. Those later numbers are not what Musk certified on Dec. 10.
On the night of December 10, 2025, Elon Musk replied to Ars Technica space editor Eric Berger: “As usual, Eric is accurate.” Berger had posted his piece arguing SpaceX was going public soon after years of resisting it. Ars wrote that it could confirm reporting that SpaceX planned to raise tens of billions in a 2026 IPO. That is a founder backing a reporter. It is not a confidential S-1, not a priced deal, and not Tesla going public a second time.
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Key facts
- What Musk said: Berger was “accurate.” He did not name a date, a ticker, or a dollar amount in that reply.
- What Ars said: After years of resisting it, SpaceX now plans to go public. Why? (Dec. 10, 2025). Berger’s X teaser: “Here’s why I think SpaceX is going public soon.”
- What the wires had already said that week: Bloomberg (Dec. 9) — 2026 IPO talk, raise “significantly more than $30 billion,” about a $1.5 trillion target, mid-to-late 2026 or possibly 2027. The Wall Street Journal — a private secondary around $800 billion, and CFO Bret Johnsen telling investors SpaceX was considering a 2026 IPO. Forbes bundled those threads the next morning.
- What this is not: A filed prospectus, a $1.5 trillion lock, or a Tesla–SpaceX merger.
A reply vs a listing
SpaceX had stayed private for two decades. The Dec. 10 post is why Tesery’s same-week sibling, “SpaceX reportedly mulling an IPO”, suddenly had a founder quote. Berger’s why-now argument was capital for Starship-scale and orbital compute — not a priced book. Starlink’s customer count that month is Tesery’s 9 million active customers note. That is the cash engine people were valuing. It is not the IPO itself.
FAQ
Did Musk announce the IPO on X?
He said Berger’s reporting was accurate. He did not post a term sheet.
Was $1.5 trillion official?
That figure was in Bloomberg’s sourced story, not in Musk’s six-word reply.
Could Tesla owners buy SpaceX that week?
No. There was no public ticker in December 2025.
For Tesla owners: a SpaceX listing does not change FSD on your car. It is a different company’s capital-markets story.
Featured photo: Falcon 9 lifting a Starlink stack (file photo of the business being valued, not an IPO roadshow still). Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Related: Same-week: SpaceX mulling an IPO · SpaceX later filed · June 2026: $135 / $1.77T · Starlink 9 million customers
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