Cosmic dreams, earthly billion-dollar losses
SpaceX has filed for an IPO with the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), laying out its cards. A valuation of $2 billion would make the company more powerful than most giants on the S&P 500, even surpassing Tesla. However, the documents show massive losses.
In Q1 2026 the company recorded a net loss of $4.28 billion on revenues of about $4.69 billion. A year earlier the loss in that period was $528 million on revenues of $4 billion. Although in 2025 SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in revenue (up from $14 billion in 2024), the year ended with a net loss of $4.94 billion, wiping out the prior profit of $791 million.
The planned IPO is expected to bring in up to $75 billion and heavily involve retail investors who could own up to 30% of the shares through platforms such as Robinhood or Fidelity. The price for entering the game, however, is Musk’s extreme goals: creating a colony on Mars with at least one million residents and building space-based data centers.
The market values the company at a record $28.5 billion. The key to success remains the Starship rocket, whose tests in 2025 ended in explosions. Delays in this fully recoverable system pose a huge risk, especially since Falcon 9 rockets will not lift the next‑generation Starlink satellites.
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Starlink earns, but AI burns cash
The main engine of the business remains the satellite internet Starlink, generating two‑thirds of sales in Q1 2026. The number of subscribers grew from 2.3 million in 2023 to 8.9 million in 2025, bringing in $4.42 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, the space‑transport segment, despite dominance and contracts with NASA, still incurs operating losses – in Q1 they were $662 million on revenues of about $619 million.
Nevertheless, the real financial vampire turned out to be artificial intelligence. Capital expenditures for SpaceX reached a peak of $20.74 billion, more than half of which went to the AI pillar. This is the result of acquiring xAI, which generated an operating loss in that segment of $6.36 billion in 2025.
It should be noted that SpaceX also plans to acquire the startup Cursor for $60 billion within 30 days of the IPO. All this is to place satellites in orbit generating 100 gigawatts of computing power for AI. Mark Zuckerberg has similar plans, clearly indicating a trend toward space‑derived energy among Big Tech.
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All the aces in one player’s sleeve
Wall Street investors must prepare for conditions dictated solely by the billionaire. The SpaceX share structure gives Musk a staggering 85.1% of the vote, despite owning only 12.3% of Class A shares and 93.6% of Class B. Clever.
Each Class B share gives ten votes, guaranteeing him absolute power and preventing the board from removing him. Moreover, if Musk achieves his cosmic goals, he will receive a reward of up to 1 billion new shares.
This arrangement has drawn strong opposition from New York and California pension funds (CalPERS) demanding SEC intervention. Critics doubt whether a business based on massive cash burn justifies such a gigantic valuation. Other shareholders, such as Antonio Gracias of Valor Equity Partners (7.3% of Class A shares) or the conglomerate Alphabet (6.11% of shares), intend to take a risk.
The SpaceX debut on NASDAQ is scheduled for June 11 2026. Analysts predict the event will go down in history as the world’s largest public offering.
See also: Elon Musk capitulates in Europe. The result of a €120 million fine imposed on the billionaire
Source: Bloomberg, X
