After years of secrecy, SpaceX has finally opened its books.
SpaceX has officially filed for its long-awaited stock market debut, setting the stage for what could become the largest IPO in Wall Street history and potentially make Elon Musk a billionaire.
The filing described a company that has evolved far beyond reusable rockets. While SpaceX is still building its long-term mission to make humanity “multiplanetary,” the business now includes satellite internet, artificial intelligence, social media and future computing infrastructure in orbit. The company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “SPCX”.
According to the filing, SpaceX generated roughly $18.6 billion to $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025, but reported losses of nearly $5 billion over the same period. The numbers offered investors the clearest view yet of the company’s performance after years of private operation.
Starlink secures business
Rocket launches are no longer the biggest source of revenue at SpaceX.
Starlink, the company’s satellite Internet business, reportedly accounted for more than half of total revenue and nearly two-thirds of sales in the first quarter of 2026. The service now has more than 10 million subscribers worldwide and continues to expand beyond North America.
The filing also showed that Starlink is expected to become even more important in the coming years, with projections suggesting it could generate more than 70% of the company’s revenue by 2026. This growth comes as SpaceX moves deeper into rural broadband markets and international telecommunications partnerships, areas where the company already has a significant lead over its competitors.
Artificial intelligence is becoming a focus for SpaceX
One of the biggest surprises in the filing was just how aggressively SpaceX is relying on artificial intelligence. The company revealed that more than half of its capital spending last year went into AI infrastructure tied to xAI, Musk’s AI business behind the Grok chatbot.
TechCrunch reported that SpaceX has directed around $20 billion in AI-related spending in 2025 alone. Despite this investment, the AI division reportedly lost billions and grew more slowly than some competing AI firms.
Still, SpaceX seems confident that AI will eventually become one of its biggest businesses. The filing claimed the company had identified “the largest exploitable total addressable market (‘TAM’) in human history” worth $28.5 trillion, with enterprise AI applications accounting for the majority of this opportunity.
The company also confirmed plans to fully absorb xAI into SpaceX operations. “AI accelerates SpaceX’s mission to make life multiplanetary, understand the true nature of the universe, and extend the light of consciousness to the stars,” the application states.
The starship remains the company’s biggest gamble
While AI ambitions are growing rapidly, much of SpaceX’s future still hinges on Starship, the giant reusable rocket system Musk believes will eventually carry humans to Mars. The filing showed that SpaceX has spent billions developing the vehicle, including roughly $3 billion in Starship research and development in 2025 alone.
SpaceX expects Starship to begin delivering payloads to orbit in the second half of 2026. If successful, the rocket would eventually launch next-generation Starlink satellites, support lunar and Mars missions, and eventually launch AI space data centers.
The company claims that Starship could reduce the cost of reaching orbit by “99% or more” compared to historical launch systems. The filing also revived several futuristic ideas Musk has touted for years, including point-to-point travel around Earth using Starship rockets, orbital manufacturing facilities, space tourism and even asteroid mining.
“Our goal is to build manufacturing facilities in space that take advantage of the unique microgravity conditions of space to produce materials, pharmaceuticals and advanced components that are difficult or impossible to manufacture on Earth,” the application states.
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Musk tightens the grip
The IPO filing makes it clear that Musk will remain firmly in control of SpaceX after the company goes public.
He is expected to continue to serve as chief executive officer, chief technical officer and chairman of the board. Reports suggest he will retain majority control through the company’s dual-class share structure.
The filing also revealed an extraordinary compensation package tied to ambitious milestones, including increasing SpaceX’s valuation to $7.5 trillion and establishing a “permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants.” Bloomberg reported that Musk’s bonus structure could eventually award him trillions in additional shares if those goals are met.
Risks, Litigation and Political Burden
SpaceX disclosed hundreds of millions of dollars in expected legal costs associated with lawsuits and regulatory investigations involving xAI, Grok, copyright claims, data privacy disputes and allegations of deeply fake imagery.
The company also acknowledged that investor sentiment around Musk himself could become a factor in the IPO. Over the past two years, Musk’s political activity, alliance with US President Donald Trump and controversies surrounding X and Tesla have increasingly attracted the attention of investors and regulators.
At the same time, SpaceX remains one of the few Musk-led companies still widely seen as operationally dominant. Its launch business, Starlink network, and government contracts with agencies including NASA and the US Department of Defense continue to provide leadership in the aerospace industry.
Wall Street analysts already see SpaceX’s debut as the opening act in a new era of massive AI and technology listings, with rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic also preparing potential IPOs later this year.
The filing also raises a broader question about Musk’s next infrastructure frontier: his proposed $119 billion Texas chip factory “Terafab,” which could reshape the AI, robotics and semiconductor supply chain.
