SpaceX has filed for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), giving investors the clearest look yet at the finances, ambitions, and risks behind Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company.
The company has applied to list on the Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas exchanges under the ticker “SPCX”. Reuters has reported that SpaceX could seek to raise about $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion, which would make it the largest stock market listing on record.
The filing shows a business that’s no longer defined by rocket launches alone. SpaceX is now presenting itself as a wider technology company built around Starlink, artificial intelligence (AI), launch services, and long-term plans for Mars.
Starlink Is Carrying SpaceX Revenue
SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in revenue for 2025, but still posted a $4.9 billion loss.
Starlink, its satellite internet business, is now the company’s strongest commercial engine. Business Insider reported that Starlink generated $11.39 billion in 2025 revenue and $3.26 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
That makes connectivity central to the SpaceX IPO story. Starlink gives SpaceX a recurring revenue stream beyond launch contracts, with internet services sold to consumers, businesses, governments, and telecom partners around the world.
By contrast, SpaceX’s space segment, which includes launch and payload services, generated $4.09 billion in 2025 and $619 million in the first quarter of 2026.
AI Is Now a Major SpaceX Bet
One of the biggest revelations in the filing is how much SpaceX is investing in AI.
SpaceX recently absorbed Musk’s AI company xAI, bringing X, formerly Twitter, and the Grok chatbot into the wider business. The filing shows that SpaceX’s AI segment generated $3.2 billion in 2025 revenue, but also produced heavy losses.
Capital spending in the AI segment reached $12.7 billion in 2025, more than three times the spending across SpaceX’s space and connectivity segments.
SpaceX is also framing AI as its largest long-term market. The company said it sees a $28.5 trillion total addressable market, with AI making up most of that opportunity.
A total addressable market is the maximum revenue opportunity a company believes it could target. It doesn’t mean that revenue is guaranteed. In this case, it shows how strongly SpaceX wants investors to view AI as part of its future growth story.
Starship Remains Central to the Mars Plan
SpaceX’s long-term mission still rests heavily on Starship, its fully reusable rocket system.
The filing says SpaceX expects Starship to begin orbital payload delivery in the second half of 2026. The vehicle is expected to play a major role in launching future Starlink satellites, supporting lunar missions, and eventually carrying people and cargo to Mars.
SpaceX also uses the filing to point towards more speculative future businesses, including in-space manufacturing, space-based data centres, and Mars settlement.
Those plans remain highly ambitious. They’re also expensive, technically difficult, and dependent on Starship proving it can work reliably at scale.
Musk Will Keep Tight Control
The filing also confirms that Musk will retain overwhelming control after SpaceX goes public.
Musk holds about 85 per cent of the company’s voting power through SpaceX’s dual-class share structure. Class A shares will carry one vote each, while Class B shares carry 10 votes each.
That means public investors may be able to buy into SpaceX, but they won’t have much influence over how the company is run.
The filing also outlines a compensation plan that could award Musk additional shares if SpaceX reaches major milestones, including a $7.5 trillion market capitalisation and the establishment of a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million people.
The Filing Highlights Major Investor Risks
SpaceX’s IPO paperwork also outlines a long list of risks.
These include the high cost of AI infrastructure, uncertainty around Starship timelines, regulatory scrutiny, legal claims linked to Grok, and the challenge of running several ambitious businesses inside one company.
There are also governance concerns. Musk’s voting control gives him unusual power for a company that could become one of the most valuable public businesses in the world.
That control may appeal to investors who believe Musk’s leadership is central to SpaceX’s success. But it also limits shareholder influence if the company’s strategy, costs, or legal exposure become harder to manage.
The SpaceX IPO filing gives Wall Street its first full look at one of the most closely watched private companies in technology. It shows a business with real revenue power through Starlink, enormous spending on AI, and a future still tied to one of Musk’s oldest promises: making life multi-planetary.
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