00:00on SpaceX with Fiona Sincotta, Senior Market Analyst with Citi Index.
00:04Fiona, thanks so much for joining us. The company's 24 years old.
00:09Why does SpaceX want to list now?
00:12So basically, I mean, it needs a huge amount of capital.
00:16This is not just a rocket company. As we've just heard, it's also got Starlink,
00:22the satellites, it's also got AI infrastructure and Mars Ambition.
00:27So in order to be able to push forward with these views, these ambitions and this growth,
00:33capital is needed. And so, you know, by going public, this would unlock a huge amount
00:39of capital for the company to deploy, as we heard, around 75 billion potentially.
00:46So going public... Sorry, yes, carry on.
00:48I was going to say, there are other reasons as well, as well as the capital.
00:52Also, the environment has improved. So we've got the IPO.
00:55We've had a bit of a low point in IPOs over the past few years, but that really feels like
01:01it's turning a corner in recent months, and especially in 2026.
01:06So the environment's much better as far as IPOs are concerned.
01:09Plus, we've got this AI boom, which has really been revived recently,
01:13as we've seen, you know, from NVIDIA's results.
01:15Going public, of course, means just that.
01:17Lots of private financial detail is now open to scrutiny.
01:22What's been the most revealing or surprising aspect of all this for you?
01:27So I think what's been really interesting is the fact that although we're seeing a lot of revenue,
01:31particularly from Starlink, actually the company is running at a loss.
01:36And given the fact that we're expected to see potentially a valuation of around 1.75 trillion US dollars
01:43for a company that's running at a loss, that is quite a stark valuation and quite a stark difference.
01:49So I think what that really does tell us is that this is very much an IPO where investors will
01:56be buying into Musk's vision of the future.
02:00And I think that's what's key about this IPO.
02:02Of course, it's not just SpaceX that is going to launch on the stock exchange.
02:07OpenAI reportedly also wants to list by September.
02:10And we know, of course, this is just days after Sam Altman won the court case against Elon Musk.
02:17Is this a significant timing issue or just a sign that all these companies are now looking to list?
02:23So I think it's a combination.
02:25I do think that that legal had been a legal obstacle as far as the listing had been concerned.
02:31So if they can draw a line under that, then obviously that's going to be more beneficial for an IPO.
02:37But as I mentioned, you know, I think the fact that we've also got this environment for IPOs right now,
02:42plus we've got this AI revived boom going on.
02:45It's like all the stars are aligning for it to be a great time for these companies to go public.
02:51Thank you so much.
02:52That's Fiona Sincotta of CitiIndex.
02:55Thank you so much.
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