SpaceX will sell insider shares at US$112 apiece in a tender offer, a higher-than-expected price that boosts the value of Elon Musk’s space and satellite company closer to US$210 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company was last valued at US$180 billion in a transaction in December, Bloomberg News reported. 

The world’s second-most valuable start-up decided to price its current tender offer - a transaction that enables employees and insiders like investors to sell shares - at higher than the US$200 billion valuation that was discussed last month, due to significant investor demand, the people said, who declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak publicly.

The new valuation is a record for an American private company, but is still lower than the US$268 billion valuation of ByteDance Ltd, the parent of social video phenom TikTok. Already, SpaceX is on a par with some of the world’s largest, publicly traded companies by market capitalisation. 

Terms aren’t finalised, and the size of the tender offer could change depending on interest from both insider sellers and buyers. 

Representatives of SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

  - Bloomberg