SpaceX is moving ahead with its first corporate bond sale and disclosed it holds about $100.8 billion in cash. It is tapping the bond market right after a large initial public offering (IPO) as it speeds up efforts to secure funding for artificial intelligence (AI) and space infrastructure investment.

CNBC reported on June 22 that SpaceX announced plans to issue senior unsecured corporate bonds. The company said it plans to use the proceeds to repay bridge loans and for general corporate purposes.

The bond sale will be SpaceX's first corporate debt fundraising. It comes just 10 days after the IPO on June 12. At the time, SpaceX raised about $86 billion, including the greenshoe option.

Markets are focusing above all on the size of SpaceX's disclosed cash holdings. The company said it currently holds about $100.8 billion in cash. Analysts say that issuing bonds despite holding such a large amount of cash suggests it is aimed less at simple liquidity and more at reshaping its capital structure and securing long-term investment funds.

Reports also emerged last week that SpaceX was contacting institutional investors for a bond sale of about $20 billion. The company has officially cited repayment of bridge financing and general-purpose funding needs as the reasons for the issuance, but the market is also watching expanding AI investment and plans to build space data centres.

SpaceX has recently presented expansion of its AI business as a key growth engine. It is also said to be considering a plan to build data centres in space over the long term. As demand for AI model training and inference surges, it is a concept to build a new type of data-centre ecosystem by using space-based power and cooling infrastructure.

Its share price performance since the IPO has been mixed. Right after listing, SpaceX shares surged and at one point reflected market expectations by surpassing Amazon in market value. It was also valued at levels above Broadcom, Meta Platforms and Tesla.

More recently, profit-taking after the short-term rally has pushed the shares down by a significant margin from their peak. Investors are watching whether early post-listing expectations can translate into actual results, and how realistic the AI and space data-centre concept can become.

The industry is assessing the bond sale as a signal of SpaceX's first funding strategy after listing. It is using the bond market after a large IPO to expand investment funds by combining equity and debt.

Key points to watch will be whether the actual issuance size is confirmed at around $20 billion and how much of the proceeds will be invested in the AI business and building space data centres.