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SpaceX files initial paperwork to sell shares to public likely make Musk trillionaire

     New York, Apr 1 (AP) Elon Musk's space exploration company has filed preliminary paperwork to sell shares to the public, according to two sources familiar with the filing.
     It is a blockbuster offering that would likely rank as the biggest ever and could make its founder the world's first trillionaire.
     A SpaceX IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year, with several investment banks lining up to help raise tens of billions to fund Musk's ambitions to set up a base on the moon, put data centres the size of several football fields in orbit and possibly one day send a man to Mars.
     The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk publicly about the confidential registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
     SpaceX did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
     Exactly how much SpaceX plans to raise has not been disclosed but the figure is reportedly as much as USD 75 billion.
     The offering, coming possibly in June, could value all the shares of SpaceX at USD 1.5 trillion, nearly double what the company was valued in December when some minority owners sold their stakes, according to research firm Pitchbook.
     In addition to making reusable rockets to hurl astronauts and hardware into orbit, SpaceX owns Starlink, the world's largest satellite communications company.
     The company also recently bought two other Musk businesses, social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and his artificial intelligence business, xAI. (AP) GRS
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)