SpaceX – The Countdown to the largest IPO in history is on

03.06.2026 - by Egmond Haidt

(This is a translated version of the original German article.)

Never before has an IPO generated this much hype. Here are the key facts you need to know.

The moment is nearly here: on 12 June, SpaceX is set to make its stock market debut. Marketing begins on 4 June, with Elon Musk’s company announcing key details such as the number of shares to be sold and the price range. Depending on investor demand, the final figures – most importantly, the issue price – will be revealed on 11 June.

According to press reports, the company aims to raise around $75 billion from the IPO, valuing SpaceX at a total of $1.75 trillion. This would make the IPO proceeds more than double the $29.4 billion raised by the previous record-holder, Saudi Aramco, in its 2019 debut.
As a result, SpaceX’s free float would stand at 4.3%, while the company would rank 7th in the S&P 500 by market capitalization, ahead of Tesla which is currently valued at $1.6 trillion.

Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is a U.S. aerospace, telecommunications, and AI company best known for reusing rocket components, drastically reducing the cost of space launches. The IPO proceeds will fund massive investments, particularly in AI.
The business is divided into three segments: spaceflight, connectivity, and AI. In connectivity, the focus is on Starlink, a subsidiary operating around 9,600 satellites in low Earth orbit, providing internet and mobile services. Customer numbers doubled in 2025 to 8.9 million, reaching 10.3 million by the end of Q1 2026.
In AI, the focus is on xAI, acquired by SpaceX in early 2026, primarily consisting of X (formerly Twitter) and the AI chatbot Grok. xAI is rapidly expanding computing capacity, with plans to operate data centers in space within years, leveraging near-free solar energy.

Red ink

In 2025, SpaceX’s revenue grew 33% to $18.7 billion, but the company reported an EBIT loss of $2.6 billion, compared to a $466 million EBIT profit the previous year.
Heavy investments weighed on cash flow: $6.8 billion from operations, but after $20.7 billion in investments, free cash flow stood at minus $14.0 billion.

In the first quarter of 2026, revenue rose 15.4% to $4.7 billion, but losses before interest and taxes (EBIT) widened to $1.9 billion, compared to a $27 million EBIT profit in the same period the year before.
Starlink was the only profitable segment, with $1.2 billion in EBIT, but this was more than offset by $2.5 billion in AI losses and $662 million in spaceflight losses.

Gigantic Ambitions

Where will SpaceX’s future growth come from? According to the IPO prospectus – and thus, Musk – AI is the answer. The company sees a $26.5 trillion addressable market in AI – with $22.7 trillion from enterprise applications –, out of a total $28.5 trillion market for SpaceX overall. The remaining $370 billion comes from spaceflight and $1.6 trillion from connectivity.
In plain terms: SpaceX is not a bet on the space business—it’s a bet on a booming AI market.
However, the prospectus provides no timeline for capturing this market. To serve such a massive AI demand, SpaceX would need to build numerous orbital data centers.

Musk currently holds 85.1% of voting rights, thanks to his Class B shares which carry 10 times the voting power of Class A shares. Even post-IPO, he will retain majority control, allowing him to single-handedly decide SpaceX’s future.

Now, I’m curious to see how SpaceX will further stoke the IPO hype in the coming days.