Big banks eyeing SpaceX IPO must subscribe to Grok

Elon Musk has made a strategic move requiring banks and advisors seeking to work on SpaceX’s planned entrance onto the stock market to subscribe to his AI assistant, Grok. The decision comes as SpaceX raises its target valuation for a potential initial public offering (IPO) to more than $2 trillion—potentially making it the largest listing in history.

Major financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup, are expected to act as lead banks on the deal, according to an article by The New York Times.

Reports suggest that some banks have already agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars annually to use Grok, with several institutions beginning to integrate the system into their internal IT infrastructure.

The company is aiming to raise around $75 billion, a figure that would far exceed previous “mega-IPOs,” including Saudi Arabian energy giant Saudi Aramco ($25.6 billion) and Chinese e-commerce retailer Alibaba ($25 billion).

According to sources, the requirement reflects Musk’s broader ambition to strengthen his AI ecosystem’s position in the corporate sector. Embedding Grok within banking systems could provide the platform with large-scale distribution across global financial institutions.

News of the private space company’s potential public listing has already lifted sentiment across the space-tech sector, boosting smaller industry players over the past two days.

"On balance I would expect that a publicly traded SpaceX will result in greater appreciation for the business strength of SpaceX's assets, while also catalyzing increased awareness and appreciation of a broader growing space ecosystem," said Daniel Hanson, senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, in comments to Business Insider.

Some of the industry players seeing the biggest gains in share prices include:

Planet Labs: +24%

Intuitive Machines: +24%

York Space Systems: +18%

Firefly Aerospace: +14%

Viasat: +13%

By Nazrin Sadigova