SpaceX's IPO filing reveals the financial health and operations of the world's largest private company. It is expected to set a record for the largest stock listing ever and could make its founder Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. The company plans to list on Nasdaq in June under the stock code "SPCX." Wednesday's filing did not disclose a proposed share price or initial valuation. Here are some key takeaways from the IPO documents.
$4.9 billion loss
SpaceX is expected to seek an initial valuation of $1.5 trillion or more, but its financials are significantly worse than any other U.S. mega-company. Last year, the company had revenue of $18.7 billion and a loss of $4.9 billion.
This year's losses have further expanded: In the first quarter, SpaceX achieved revenue of US$4.7 billion and a loss of US$4.3 billion.
The financial data tells two stories. The first is a mature business of launching satellites and astronauts into space using the company's legacy Falcon rockets, as well as the growth of its Starlink satellite internet business. The space business generated revenue of $4.1 billion last year but was still not profitable. Starlink contributed US$11.4 billion in revenue.
The second story is losses stemming from its February merger with artificial intelligence startup xAI. In order to catch up with competitors, xAI burned a lot of cash in building large data centers. xAI achieved revenue of US$3.2 billion last year.
The company recently signed a deal with Anthropic, whose Claude AI tool competes with SpaceX's Grok. SpaceX will lease the computing power of its two large data centers for $1.25 billion per month, and the agreement will last until May 2029.
Total capital expenditures reached $20.7 billion, with a large portion coming from xAI, which spent $12.7 billion. Capital expenditures for the launch and satellite businesses combined last year were $8 billion.
Musk holds 85% control
Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of colonizing Mars, has strong control over the company's leadership and ownership. The CEO is the largest shareholder, controlling 85% of the voting power as of May 1 thanks to super-voting Class B shares (each Class B share holds 10 votes, compared with just 1 vote per Class A share sold to the public).
Musk holds 849 million Class A shares and 5.6 billion Class B shares.
Along with other board members and executives, insiders own about 20% of the Class A shares and 94% of the Class B shares, giving them a combined 86% of the voting power. This structure would make it nearly impossible for investors to oust Musk as CEO.
Make-or-break compensation package
Musk’s take-home salary in 2025 will be $54,000, but most of the billionaire’s compensation consists of two huge equity incentive plans.
In January this year, SpaceX awarded Musk an incentive package containing 1 billion Class B shares. The conditions for unlocking the equity are: the company successfully establishes a permanent human settlement on Mars with a permanent population of no less than 1 million people, and at the same time achieves a series of market value targets, ultimately pushing the company's market value to US$7.5 trillion.
In March this year, the company's board of directors again granted it 302.1 million shares to replace the previous equity incentive for xAI. The conditions for unlocking this batch of equity are: the company builds an off-site data center and completes 12 market value assessment targets at the same time, ultimately pushing the company's market value to US$6.6 trillion.
The SpaceX incentive package comes just months after Tesla shareholders approved another compensation package for Musk that could be worth about $1 trillion if he achieves his ambitious goals at Tesla, where he also serves as CEO.
eight board members
SpaceX has eight directors, with Musk serving as chairman and choosing who to work with. The board is full of Musk allies.
Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners, has been a director since 2010 and his company is one of SpaceX's largest investors, holding a 7.3% stake. Based on an expected valuation of $1.5 trillion, the shares would be worth more than $100 billion.
As a controlled company, SpaceX said it does not need to have a majority of independent board members. Still, it classified some directors as independent, including Jurvesson and Nosek, who made their fortunes investing in Musk's companies, and Ellen Price, who is considered independent despite serving on Tesla's board.
SpaceX executives hold shares in the company that could make them billionaires. Shotwell, who earned $86 million last year mostly in the form of stock options, holds 5.5 million Class A shares and 7.1 million Class B shares.
numerous related parties
Musk's companies help each other, including sharing business jets and buying each other's products or services. For example, SpaceX purchased a Cybertruck from Tesla for $131 million in 2025 at "manufacturer's suggested retail price."
SpaceX's prospectus disclosed for the first time the specific amounts of these payments to Musk's other companies. In 2025, SpaceX also purchased $506 million worth of Megapack energy storage products from Tesla. Meanwhile, Musk's xAI has paid Tesla approximately $731 million from the beginning of 2024 to February 2026.
SpaceX and Tesla are also working together to build a large-scale chip factory called Terafab and an artificial intelligence project called Macrohard. Overall, Tesla is mentioned 87 times in SpaceX's prospectus. "We plan to explore other areas of strategic cooperation with Tesla in the future," the filing reads.
government contracts
Spending by U.S. federal agencies accounted for about 20% of SpaceX’s revenue last year. Federal customers include NASA, but also the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.
The company did not elaborate on its national security-related work but pointed to the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office as one of its clients. The National Reconnaissance Office is an American spy agency focused on space intelligence. SpaceX has been working with the National Reconnaissance Office for the past few years to develop a network of classified satellites.
Lifting the ban in stages
Musk and certain key investors have agreed not to sell their shares for 366 days after SpaceX begins trading.
Other pre-IPO investors are subject to a 180-day lock-up period. However, these investors have the opportunity to sell their shares earlier through "early unlocking."
Up to 20% of the stocks eligible for early release can be sold shortly after SpaceX announces its first quarterly results. Another 10% of those shares will be unlocked if SpaceX's stock remains at certain levels ahead of its first earnings release.
Additional shares will be released at phased intervals, including after companies report second-quarter earnings as a public company. Musk and other insiders are not eligible for early relief.