--- title: "SpaceX IPO filing reveals heavy losses, Elon Musk’s tight grip" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/287137876.md" description: "SpaceX has filed for an IPO aiming for a valuation of up to $75 billion, despite reporting a net loss of $4.28 billion in Q1 2025. Elon Musk retains control through a super-voting share structure. The IPO could set a record, surpassing Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering, with formal marketing expected to start soon. SpaceX's revenue from its Starlink service has doubled, but its AI operations reported significant losses." datetime: "2026-05-21T01:10:18.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/287137876.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/287137876.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/287137876.md) --- # SpaceX IPO filing reveals heavy losses, Elon Musk’s tight grip \[WASHINGTON\] SpaceX filed publicly for what stands to be the largest-ever initial public offering, revealing billions in losses and the super-voting share plan allowing 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 in its listing at a valuation of more than US$2 trillion, sources 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 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 filing on Wednesday (May 20) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The audacious plan by 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. 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. Because the Class B shares carry 10 votes each, 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 PBC, whose products capture a greater share of chatbot website traffic than SpaceX’s Grok, according to Similarweb, are preparing for listings as soon as this year. ### Navigate Asia in a new global order Get the insights delivered to your inbox. SpaceX previously filed confidentially for the listing, Bloomberg News exclusively reported in April. The company, known formally as Space Exploration Technologies, chose Nasdaq to make its debut under the symbol SPCX, according to a filing on Wednesday with the US SEC. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are leading SpaceX’s IPO, the filing shows. Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase are also working on the deal, along with 18 other banks. Formal marketing, when SpaceX will disclose the proposed terms of the share sale, is expected to begin as early as Jun 4, ahead of pricing as soon as Jun 11, Bloomberg News reported earlier. ## Mature startup 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 lost of US$4.94 billion last year, according to the filing. SEE ALSO ### Elon Musk loses OpenAI court battle: 5 takeaways from the blockbuster trial ### SpaceX holders sign off on 5-for-1 stock split ahead of IPO ### SpaceX accelerates IPO timeline, targets June 12 listing on Nasdaq: sources SpaceX dominates the space transportation industry and is a key rocket launch provider for both Nasa and the Pentagon. PHOTO: REUTERS 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 for AI. For the three months ended Mar 31, the space segment generated revenue of US$619 million and a loss from operations of US$662 million, the filing shows. A year ago, the company’s Space segment generated revenue of US$4 billion and 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 last year, compared with US$2 billion a year earlier. SpaceX’s AI operations, though, lost US$6.36 billion last year, compared with US$1.56 billion in 2024, the filing shows. A letter from the billionaire 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, 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 Apr 21 that it has an agreement giving it the right to acquire AI startup Cursor for US$60 billion later this year or to pay US$10 billion for the companies’ work together. SpaceX is not acquiring Cursor immediately because of the imminent IPO, and the US$10 billion is a breakup fee if the deal does not go through, Bloomberg News has reported. Long a darling of private market investors, SpaceX’s private valuation has grown rapidly, reaching US$1.25 trillion after it acquired Musk’s AI startup xAI earlier this year. The acquisition included X, the social media network that Musk acquired in 2022 in a US$44 billion deal, including US$33.5 billion in equity. At US$2 trillion, SpaceX’s market value would be larger than all but a handful of the companies in the S&P 500 Index, and larger than Tesla which 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. After Musk, the largest shareholder is listed as Antonio Gracias, the founder of Valor Equity Partners, with 7.3 per cent of the Class A shares. That’s largely through funds at Valor and Garcia’s personal ownership is not immediately clear. Early backers are also expected to see gains from the IPO. Alphabet’s Google owned a 6.11 per cent stake in Musk’s company at the end of 2025, according to regulatory disclosure in April. At a US$2 trillion valuation, a holding of that size would be worth US$122 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations. SpaceX’s investors include Baillie Gifford, Baron Capital, Brookfield, Fidelity and Sequoia Capital, data compiled by PitchBook shows. Employees and backers are expected to be bound by so-called lock-up agreements preventing them from selling stock until a certain period after the shares have begun trading. ## Starship plans SpaceX warns that potential delays or failures in the development of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket could be a risk to the company’s plans. Starship, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed, is central to Musk’s ambitious plans to establish data centres in space and send humans to the moon and Mars. The vehicle, however, is not yet operational and has faced a rocky testing cycle, with a handful of Starship flights suffering premature explosions in 2025. SpaceX’s Starship rocket is also meant to be a fully reusable launch system, with the entirety of the rocket returning to Earth intact after each mission – something that’s never been achieved. The company states that if Starship needs to undergo any unexpected design modifications or additional testing, that could lead to additional significant costs and force the company to “reallocate critical resources from other projects”. SpaceX also said that its next-generation Starlink satellites cannot launch on its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy family of rockets, nor can the vehicles launch the upgraded Starlink satellites that are designed to connect directly with smartphones. ## Achievable goals 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 previously discussed valuations well over US$1.25 trillion 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. Musk appeared to push back on the valuation target of US$2 trillion in an Apr 3 X post, saying “do not believe everything you read”. Large pension investors have criticised Musk’s proposed dual-class share structure and a provision giving him an effective veto over his own firing, with leaders of New York state and city pension funds and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System jointly publishing a letter on May 14 urging SpaceX to revise the structure. Separately, union-affiliated pension fund adviser SOC Investment Group asked the SEC to review SpaceX’s financial disclosures for accuracy and reliability, ensure its auditor remains independent, and scrutinise the accounting of SpaceX’s transactions with other Musk companies, including Tesla. The American Federation of Teachers made a similar request, noting several board members are close Musk allies. 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, Bloomberg News has reported. 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, an affiliate of 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 startups, a space with little transparency and limited regulatory oversight. 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