SpaceX reveals plans for what could be biggest-ever initial public offering

The world’s richest man has announced plans for one of the biggest sales of stock to the public ever for a space company currently losing billions of dollars a year.

Documents filed on Wednesday show Elon Musk’s SpaceX lost 2.6 billion dollars from operations last year on 18.7 billion dollars in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the start of this year too.

Still, the initial public offering is expected to rank among the largest ever, possibly surpassing the current title holder, Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that went public seven years ago.

The prospectus did not put a dollar figure on the amount Mr Musk hoped to raise but various reports have put it at 75 billion dollars or so, a gusher that he is hoping will help to finance projects to put men on the Moon and maybe some day Mars.

The initial offering could also make Mr Musk, a major holder of SpaceX equity, the world’s first trillionaire.