SpaceX is gearing up for a historic public listing, and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives is calling it a "watershed moment" for Wall Street. The rocket company has set its IPO pricing at $135 per share, with plans to sell 555.6 million shares and raise a whopping $75 billion. That would value SpaceX at $1.75 trillion, right in line with earlier estimates.

The offering consists entirely of new shares, meaning existing shareholders—including CEO Elon Musk—will have to hold onto their stakes for now. Ives sees this as the first big test for public markets after a long dry spell in IPOs. "This listing represents the first major test for public markets after years of muted IPO activity, with SpaceX paving the way for AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI to follow soon after," he said.

So where's all that cash going? Ives says the proceeds will fund SpaceX's AI expansion, grow the Starlink satellite network, and back new ventures like solar-powered data centers in space. "The company has laid out an addressable market opportunity of $28.5 trillion," he noted, covering space, connectivity, Starlink broadband, Starlink mobile, and AI.

But the real headline-grabber is Ives' long-standing prediction: a merger between SpaceX and Tesla. He's put the odds at 80% or higher, and he's sticking with that call. "We continue to believe that SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge (80%+ chance in our view) into one company in 2027 with the groundwork already in place for both operations to become one organization," Ives wrote in a new investor note.

The logic? Musk wants to own and control more of the AI ecosystem. Tesla already has a stake in SpaceX, and the two companies are closely connected. "Musk wants to own and control more of the AI ecosystem and step by step, the holy grail could be combining SpaceX and Tesla in some way," Ives said. He described both companies as "disruptive tech stalwarts looking to lead the AI Revolution in this next chapter for the market."

For now, SpaceX is hitting the public markets as a pure-play on space and AI. But if Ives is right, the real story might be what happens next—a combined Musk empire that could reshape the tech landscape.