SpaceX officially filed for an IPO a week ago, and Musk has now stoked market doubts. The recyclable rocket company is about to introduce its listing plan to investors. Just a few days ago, Musk detailed the details of the company's recent cooperation with artificial intelligence startup rival Isopac on his social platform X on Wednesday night. The key elements of the cooperation he mentioned did not appear in the more than 300-page IPO filing.
On May 27, 2025, Elon Musk appeared at the local SpaceX base in Brownsville, Texas.
Earlier this month, SpaceX announced that it would lease idle computing power at its Colossus One data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to IsoPark. The prospectus released last week showed that Isopac needs toBefore May 2029Pay $1.25 billion to SpaceX every month; discounts will be available during the gradual delivery phase of computing power from May to June 2026. The document also states,Either party to the agreement may terminate the cooperation by giving 90 days' notice in advance..
However, Musk posted on theLease term only 180 days, after expiration, both parties can terminate the contract with 90 days’ notice. However, there is no mention in the prospectus that the cooperation will only last for a few months.
There are huge differences in the payment model of the cooperation between the two parties: whether Isopac will pay SpaceX US$15 billion per year for the next three years, or whether the fee will be significantly reduced under a short-term cooperation, this is a core consideration for potential investors. SpaceX's total annual revenue in 2025 will be only US$18.7 billion. Renting computing power to external parties has opened up a new source of income for the company. It has also allowed SpaceX to enter the emerging cloud service provider track and compete with companies such as Nebius and Colviv.
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Some investors were already wary of the largest IPO in history: The company is valued at more than a trillion dollars and is losing huge amounts every quarter. Musk's announcement further caused the market to question the quality of the company's information disclosure.
Eric Talley, a professor at Columbia University Law School and an expert in the field of corporate governance, said in an email: "Today's situation is very abnormal. Either what Musk said is true, then this S-1 listing application document is seriously misleading; or the content of the document is correct, or Musk is making up mysteries again. But in any case, investors who want to value SpaceX will be confused."
Isopac declined to comment for this story, and SpaceX officials did not respond to requests for interviews.
Analysts pointed out that this prospectus contains information omissions, and it is not only reflected in the terms of cooperation with Isopac.
Franco Granda, an analyst at Pitchbook, a data research institution, issued a report after the prospectus was released, sorting out many missing contents.
"The document is missing several key disclosures," he wrote. Among them: user churn rates for Falcon 9 reusable rockets, unit operating efficiency, and a breakdown of the artificial intelligence business segment. The report does not separately list subscription data for the Grok large model, the X platform, nor does it indicate the actual usage of the 1 billion watts of deployed computing power.
Artificial Intelligence Business Valuation Difficulties
SpaceX’s artificial intelligence sector makes it even more difficult for investors to assess its value.
Musk founded xAI in 2023 with the intention of challenging Open Artificial Intelligence (OpenAI) in the rapidly developing generative artificial intelligence market. Currently, xAI is still a niche player in the industry, but in February this year, Musk merged it into SpaceX. The combined group’s overall valuation reached US$1.25 trillion. At that time, he valued xAI alone at US$250 billion.
Prospectus data shows that SpaceX’s capital expenditures reached US$10.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, doubling year-on-year, of which US$7.7 billion was invested in the original xAI business (now renamed SpaceXAI). The artificial intelligence segment posted an operating loss of $2.5 billion in the quarter.
SpaceX’s choice to rent out computing power also reflects the lack of market demand for its own AI products and services, and its inability to fully utilize the costly computing power infrastructure.
Musk explained in the post that the company reserves the right to terminate the contract early in order to cope with the surge in its own computing power needs.
"We will not put our partners in trouble and will give us a reasonable exit cycle. But if computing power resources are extremely tight in the future, we may need to withdraw them for our own use."
Ark Investment founder Catherine Wood has always been optimistic about SpaceX. She believes that renting out computing power is a wise move to revitalize xAI’s heavy assets.
As early as when the cooperation was officially announced on May 9, Wood said: "Relying on the cooperation with Isopark, the original xAI (now SpaceXAI) reversed the huge losses of Colossus data center, successfully transformed into an emerging cloud service provider and achieved considerable profits." She estimated at the time that this cooperation could bring the company $5 billion to $6 billion in revenue every year.
The revenue figures disclosed in subsequent IPO documents were higher, and now Musk has made a public statement, which is equivalent to indirectly admitting that there are loopholes in the prospectus.
Ann Lipton, a law professor at the University of Colorado, said that if SpaceX wants to amend its S-1 document before going public, it should attach the tweet and explain it. She mentioned in the email that Musk’s remarks did contradict the declaration documents, but the differences between the two may be reconciled.
"Following normal procedures, companies are required to separately file supplemental updates with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)."