BofA’s Hartnett Says Mega-IPOs Could Be Flashing Roaring ’20s-style Bubble Vibes

Bloomberg, the Guardian, the Financial Times, Business Insider contributed to this report.

The mega-IPO machine is getting loud again, and Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett thinks that should make people a little nervous.

His warning lands just as SpaceX has kicked off a blockbuster run at the public markets. Elon Musk’s rocket company filed its investor prospectus this week as it heads toward what could be the biggest US IPO ever, with a possible valuation of up to $1.75 trillion. If that number holds, Musk’s stake alone could put him on a path to trillionaire status.

The filing gives investors a rare look inside Musk’s most valuable company, and it is every bit as strange as you would expect. SpaceX says it brought in $18.6 billion in revenue last year, but still lost $4.9 billion. In the first quarter of this year, it made $4.7 billion in sales and lost another $4.3 billion. That has not scared off the hype, but it does remind everyone that this is still a pricey, loss-making bet on the future.

Some of the numbers are pure Musk. SpaceX said it spent $131 million on Cybertrucks last year. It also spent heavily on Tesla’s Megapacks, and the filing shows just how tightly Musk’s companies are now tied together. The prospectus also says SpaceX has been funneling more money into Musk’s personal security firm, with those costs rising to $4 million last year.

Then there is the sci-fi stuff. SpaceX says its mission is not just rockets and satellites, but a permanent human colony on Mars. It talks about extending “the light of consciousness” beyond Earth and warns that humanity should not end up with the same fate as the dinosaurs. That is the kind of language that makes some investors grin and others reach for the nearest aspirin.

The filing also does not shy away from risk. SpaceX warns it may never turn profitable, says many of its ambitious products could fail, and flags a long list of legal headaches tied to xAI and Grok, including allegations around explicit content, misinformation and nonconsensual imagery. In other words: the company is racing toward the public markets while carrying a lot of baggage.

That is exactly why some investors are getting twitchy. Hartnett’s concern is that the market may be drifting into a familiar mood: huge IPOs, sky-high expectations and a lot of faith that the future will justify almost any price. SpaceX may be the star of the moment, but it is also a reminder that when markets get drunk on scale and storytelling, the hangover can arrive fast.