Is SpaceX Worth $1.75 Trillion? Key Questions for Musk’s Big IPO

In the seven and a half years since Apple Inc.’s market capitalization broke through the $1 trillion mark, investors have become accustomed to seeing big tech companies command 13-digit valuations in public markets.

There are more on the way. SpaceX, the space exploration company controlled by Tesla Inc. founder and world’s richest man Elon Musk, has signaled it is planning a mega-initial public offering in the coming months. Artificial intelligence rivals OpenAI and Anthropic also might go public this year, and their private valuations already have soared into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

The SpaceX IPO ...