SpaceX historic IPO filing reveals $5.5 billion loss, Elon Musk’s tight grip

AUSTIN, Texas – SpaceX filed publicly for what stands to be the largest-ever initial public offering (IPO), revealing billions in losses and a super-voting share plan allowing Mr Elon Musk to keep the rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence giant under his control.

The largest private company, led by the world’s richest person, is targeting as much as US$75 billion (S$96 billion) in its listing at a valuation of more than US$2 trillion, people familiar with the matter have said.

That would eclipse the US$29.4 billion IPO record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019.

SpaceX had a net loss of US$4.28 billion (S$5.5 billion) on revenue of US$4.69 billion for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of US$528 million on revenue of about US$4 billion a year earlier, according to a May 20 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The audacious plan by Mr Musk, 54, for an IPO of unprecedented size is set to transform both the public and private markets if it succeeds. A blockbuster listing and a rising share price after would help dispel concern over whether private companies with limited financial disclosures and largely illiquid shares are reaching unjustified valuations in venture capital-led funding rounds.

Mr Musk currently owns 12.3 per cent of the company’s Class A shares and 93.6 per cent of its Class B shares, which gives him 85.1 per cent of the voting power in the company, according to the filing. As the Class B shares carry 10 votes each, Mr Musk will continue to control the company after the IPO, according to the filing.

SpaceX’s debut would also open the door for other private giants to plan their own mega IPOs.

AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, whose products capture a greater share of chatbot website traffic than SpaceX’s Grok, according to Similarweb, are preparing for listings as soon as 2026.

The filing depicts a conglomerate with a maturity practically unheard of in a pre-IPO company. Overall, SpaceX had US$18.7 billion in revenue in 2025, up from US$14 billion the previous year.

During that period, the company swung from a profit of US$791 million in 2024 to a loss of US$4.94 billion in 2025, according to the filing.

SpaceX dominates the space transportation industry and is a key rocket launch provider for both NASA and the Pentagon. So far, it derives the majority of its revenue from its Starlink satellite internet business.

The company has spent billions on each segment, including US$3.8 billion in capital expenditures for space operations, US$4.18 billion on connectivity and about US$12.7 billion on AI.

For the three months ended March 31, the space segment generated revenue of US$619 million and a loss from operations of US$662 million, the filing shows. A year earlier, the company’s Space segment generated revenue of US$4 billion and a loss from operations of US$657 million.

Subscribers to SpaceX’s Starlink internet service have roughly doubled over the past couple of years, from 2.3 million in 2023 to 4.4 million in 2024 and up to 8.9 million in 2025. Income from those operations reached US$4.42 billion in 2025, compared with US$2 billion a year earlier.

SpaceX’s AI operations, though, lost US$6.36 billion in 2025, compared with US$1.56 billion in 2024, the filing shows.

A letter from Mr Musk announcing the xAI acquisition declared the deal would create “the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth”. He outlined his vision for the company of its next-generation Starship rockets lifting satellites delivering Starlink internet directly to mobile phones, and later, orbital data centres.

The least expensive way to do AI computations within two to three years will be in space, Mr Musk wrote, by harnessing the Sun’s power for data centres. These would one day be built in factories on the Moon and advance the goal of building a civilisation on Mars.

The company has moved to bolster its AI pitch to investors. SpaceX said on April 21 that it has an agreement giving it the right to acquire AI start-up Cursor for US$60 billion later in 2026 or to pay US$10 billion for the companies’ work together.

At US$2 trillion, SpaceX’s market value would be larger than all but a handful of companies in the S&P 500 Index, and larger than Tesla, which Mr Musk also runs. His fortune, which stands at US$680 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, could surge if the IPO is a success.

Mr Musk’s plan for SpaceX has drawn scepticism over whether goals such as data centres in space are achievable in anything like the foreseeable future, or even the stated aims of Starship rockets refuelling while in orbit or putting 100 to 150 tonnes of cargo in orbit.

Some analysts and observers have called the previously discussed valuations well over US$1.25 trillion as difficult to justify, based on earlier reports of financial information that showed revenue primarily coming from Starlink and xAI’s heavy cash burn, which, prior to the acquisition, was averaging US$1 billion a month.

Large pension investors have criticised Mr Musk’s proposed dual-class share structure and a provision giving him an effective veto over his own firing.

Much of the listing’s success will depend on the participation of retail investors, who could take as much as 30 per cent of the shares in the IPO. SpaceX plans to offer shares to retail investors through Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood Markets and SoFi Technologies as selling group members. SpaceX also plans to offer shares to retail investors through E*Trade by Morgan Stanley.

Another key factor will be whether index providers, including S&P Dow Jones Indices and FTSE Russell, decide to follow Nasdaq and change rules around how quickly very large IPO companies, such as SpaceX, can join key indexes. Funds that track the S&P 500 index must buy newly added stocks, and roughly US$24 trillion is tied to that index alone, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

The wave of potential mega IPOs has sparked a cottage industry of funds and platforms offering exposure to coveted private shares before the listing turns small stakes into fortunes. Executives and investors have warned about funds claiming to offer access to hot start-ups, a space with little transparency and limited regulatory oversight. BLOOMBERG