The China Mail - Musk eyes Wall Street record with SpaceX IPO

If successful, the listing of the rocket and satellite giant would dwarf any IPO in history and cement Musk's status as one of the most consequential entrepreneurs of his generation.

US media reports say SpaceX is hoping to raise $75 billion and win a valuation of as much as $1.75 trillion when it begins trading as early as next month.

The filing of the S-1 prospectus -- a document companies are required to present to the SEC before listing on a public stock exchange, providing potential investors with detailed financial information, possible risks and business strategy -- marked the first time SpaceX has publicly disclosed detailed financials in its 24-year history.

It revealed that the company generated $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025 and posted an operating loss of $2.6 billion as it poured money into next-generation rocket development and artificial intelligence.

SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business is the clear financial engine of the company, generating $11.4 billion in revenue in 2025, up nearly 50 percent year-on-year.

The AI segment, which includes xAI and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), recorded $3.2 billion in revenue for the full year 2025 but posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion as the company raced to build out AI training data centers.

Capital expenditure for the segment alone reached $12.7 billion in 2025 and $7.7 billion in just the first quarter of 2026 -- reflecting the enormous sums necessary to keep pace in the AI race against deep-pocketed rivals including Google, Meta and Amazon.

SpaceX also disclosed it had struck a deal to rent out spare capacity at its COLOSSUS and COLOSSUS II data centers to rival AI firm Anthropic for $1.25 billion per month through May 2029.

The filing comes just days after Musk suffered a significant legal setback in his bitter feud with OpenAI, a direct competitor also racing toward a public listing.

With Anthropic eyeing its own IPO as well, 2026 could prove one of the most momentous years on Wall Street in recent memory.

- Musk in control -

The filing confirmed a dual-class share structure that will leave Musk firmly in control of the company after the listing, sidestepping the kind of governance fights that have dogged him at Tesla, where shareholders have repeatedly taken aim at his compensation and the board's independence.

Musk, by far the world's richest person, is set to control approximately 79 percent of voting power while holding around 42 percent of equity.

SpaceX acknowledged the arrangement poses risks for outside investors, noting that Musk "will have the power to control the outcome of matters requiring shareholder approval, including election of all our directors."

The filing also laid out an ambitious roadmap to build data centers in space, arguing that solar energy captured in orbit represents "the only truly scalable solution" to the soaring power demands of AI computing.

SpaceX said it plans to begin deploying AI computer satellites as early as 2028, with the long-term goal of putting 100 gigawatts of compute capacity in orbit annually -- a task requiring thousands of rocket launches per year and the transport of roughly one million metric tons of payload to orbit.

The company said it was uniquely positioned to meet that challenge, calling it "incredibly difficult" and one no other company could tackle at commercial scale.

In a staggering figure, SpaceX claimed a total addressable market -- a company's estimate of the maximum revenue opportunity available for its products and services -- of $28.5 trillion across its businesses, excluding China and Russia.

Reports indicate SpaceX is targeting a June listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol SPCX, with trading expected to commence shortly thereafter.

F.Brown--ThChM