Inside SpaceX’s IPO filing: AI, Mars colonies, and Musk becoming a trillionaire

SpaceX has finally filed for its long-awaited public listing, but the document reads less like a conventional IPO prospectus and more like a blueprint for Elon Musk’s long-promised future. It is built around satellite internet, artificial intelligence infrastructure and eventually, life beyond Earth.

The company has applied to list on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas under the ticker “SPCX”, though the filing stops short of disclosing the size of the issue or the IPO price band. Reports suggest that the offering could value SpaceX at roughly $1.75 trillion, with some estimates exceeding $2 trillion, potentially making it the largest IPO in history, beating Saudi Aramco’s valuation of $1.7 trillion in 2019. The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co., along with 18 banks.

The filing opens with a quote from Musk that effectively frames the company’s broader pitch to investors. “You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great — and that’s what being a space-faring civilisation is all about.”

The above-mentioned valuation would also push Musk closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire, based on his ownership and voting control in SpaceX, if the company achieves its targeted valuation.

The filing makes clear that SpaceX no longer sees itself purely as a space transportation company. Instead, it positions itself across three core businesses: Space, Connectivity and AI, while claiming it has identified a “$28.5 trillion total addressable market” spanning launch services, satellite broadband, mobile connectivity, AI infrastructure and enterprise AI applications. Out of which $26.5 trillion is in AI, $1.6 trillion in connectivity, and lastly, $370 billion in space-related opportunities, which is odd as SpaceX’s main business was aerospace. The company also projects opportunities of $760 billion in consumer subscriptions, $600 billion in digital advertising, and $22.7 trillion in enterprise applications. 

Financially, though, the filing shows that only one part of the business is currently making meaningful money: Starlink. The company’s Connectivity division, driven primarily by Starlink, generated $11.38 billion in revenue in 2025, alongside $4.42 billion in operating income and $7.16 billion in adjusted EBITDA. Revenue in the segment grew nearly 50%, while operating income jumped more than 120% year-on-year.

The rest of the company remains deeply loss-making. SpaceX’s Space division, which includes launch operations and the Starship programme, generated $4.08 billion in revenue in 2025 but posted an operating loss of $657 million. The filing disclosed that the company spent over $3 billion on Starship research and development during the year.

Its newly integrated AI business, xAI, is burning cash at an even faster pace. In February, SpaceX acquired the Grok maker for an undisclosed amount, leading to an increase in the valuation of the space company to $1 trillion, and xAI was valued at $250 billion. But the AI business has been a pain for Musk as it generated $3.2 billion in revenue in 2025 while posting an operating loss of $6.35 billion. Capital expenditure in the business reached $12.7 billion during the year.

In the first quarter of 2026 alone, SpaceX spent $7.72 billion on AI infrastructure, compared with $1.05 billion in the Space segment and $1.33 billion in the Connectivity segment. The numbers suggest that the company’s biggest spending priority is no longer rockets, but compute infrastructure. Overall, SpaceX reported consolidated revenue of $18.67 billion in 2025 alongside an operating loss of $2.58 billion.

Disclosures that stand out in the SpaceX filing

Musk will continue to control SpaceX after listing: The filing confirms that Elon Musk will retain overwhelming control over shareholder decisions through his Class A and Class B shares, allowing SpaceX to qualify as a “controlled company” under Nasdaq governance rules. Musk is expected to control roughly 85% of the company’s voting power after the IPO. That means he will have the final say in all shareholding decisions. 

Musk’s official salary is still just $54,080: Despite running one of the world’s most valuable private companies, Musk’s base salary at SpaceX has remained unchanged since 2019 at $54,080, an amount tied to California’s minimum threshold for exempt employees before the company relocated to Texas in 2024.

Musk’s compensation package is tied to Mars colonisation: In January 2026, SpaceX approved a grant of one billion performance-based restricted Class B shares for Musk. The award, divided into 15 tranches, vests only if the company achieves specified valuation milestones and establishes a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants. One of the upper valuation milestones tied to the package exceeds $7.5 trillion.

Another stock award depends on building orbital AI infrastructure: The filing also outlines another compensation structure under which Musk could receive more than 300 million additional restricted shares if SpaceX approaches a $6.6 trillion valuation and develops “non-Earth-based data centres capable of delivering 100 terawatts of compute per year.”

The filing openly admits some projects may never work: SpaceX acknowledges that several long-term initiatives, including orbital compute infrastructure and parts of its Mars settlement ambitions, may never become commercially viable. The company also warns that delays to Starship could materially affect future growth because much of its strategy depends on the rocket system.

Anthropic has emerged as a major customer: One notable disclosure in the filing states that Anthropic will pay roughly $15 billion annually to access xAI-linked data-centre infrastructure in the American South.

Musk’s companies are becoming increasingly interconnected: The filing points to growing operational overlap between SpaceX, xAI and other Musk-linked businesses through shared infrastructure, procurement relationships and strategic integration.

A multiplanetary mission: The company states that its mission is to “build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” The statement continued, “To do this, we have formed the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth with unmatched capabilities to rapidly manufacture and launch space-based communications that connect the world, to harness the Sun to power a truth-seeking artificial intelligence that advances scientific discovery, and ultimately to build a base on the Moon and cities on other planets.”