Why do some companies wait to IPO?
Marketplace
Marketplace
4.6 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elon Musk’s SpaceX just filed to go public, and OpenAI is expected to file in the fall. Both businesses have been around for over a decade — what was the hold up? In this episode, we explain the tradeoffs that come with an IPO. Plus: U.S. manufacturers struggle with climbing tungsten prices, Stellantis doubles down on affordable car models, and the authors of “How to Win a Trade War” make an optimistic case for our future global economy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Programming is supported by Stoll Reeves, a leading U.S. corporate litigation law firm providing sophisticated business clients' high-quality legal services with offices in seven states and Washington, D.C. |
| 0:12.6 | Stole Reeves is a nationally recognized leader in project finance and natural resources industries. |
| 0:18.9 | From deals and disputes to compliance and counseling, clients turn to Stole Reeves for their most complex business challenges. |
| 0:26.0 | Learn more at S-T-O-E-L.com. |
| 0:31.6 | To infinity and beyond. |
| 0:36.0 | From American public media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:45.3 | In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizzell. |
| 0:51.8 | It is Thursday. |
| 0:53.3 | Today, this one is the 21st of May. It is always |
| 0:56.2 | to have you along, everybody. I am just going to read from the SpaceX S-1 that came out last night. |
| 1:02.9 | That's the first form that companies have to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission |
| 1:06.7 | to start the process of going public. Our mission, it says, is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life |
| 1:14.6 | multplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness |
| 1:20.5 | to the stars. |
| 1:23.5 | So Elon Musk and the gang are taking a big swing indeed. |
| 1:29.7 | This is the first look under the financial hood of the rocket company, which also owns the social media platform X as well as XAI. |
| 1:38.0 | It's coming before its expected IPO next month, which could wind up with a $1.75 trillion with a T-dollar valuation. |
| 1:46.5 | This is the first in a string of mega IPOs that are lined up, OpenAI as soon as this fall, |
| 1:51.4 | perhaps anthropic after that. |
| 1:53.9 | Point is, this hasn't happened before. |
| 1:56.4 | Companies hitting the public markets for the first time with such enormous valuations. |
| 2:01.9 | Marketplaces Megan McCarty Carino starts us off. |
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