Space X, secrets and numbers in the prospectus for the record-breaking IPO: revenue and losses grow

Musk's designs for Space X are expansive, involving interplanetary adventures, huge data centres in space, colonies on Mars. In the prospectus he writes: 'Our 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.

With a successful IPO, he could certainly aspire to another, more personal and terrestrial primacy: that of becoming the first trillionaire, increasing his wealth as the richest man on the planet, which according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index amounts to USD 680 billion. His dollar value may well exceed that of all but the top ten listed US companies, more than JP Morgan's $810 billion and on par with Berkshire Hathaway. The trillionaire's mantle will be worn, according to Wall Street Journal calculations, if the company reaches a market cap of $1.7 trillion.

However, the prospectus also highlights particular risks for the future taken by Space X and linked to Musk himself: the critical importance of one person engaged in multiple activities. The composition of the group's board is also disclosed, with eight members.

Moreover, Space X's current numbers still measure, according to sceptics, the significant gap to be bridged between reality and aspirations. Annual revenues were 18.7 billion in 2025, up 33 per cent from 14 billion previously, and those for the first quarter of 2026 were 4.7 billion, up 15.4 per cent. In the last quarter, however, the company suffered losses of over 4 billion, far more than the 528 million loss of the same period in 2025. For the whole of last year, the losses were 4.94 billion against profits of 791 million in 2024.

The crucial driver of the business to date is the Starlink satellite Internet network. Subscribers to the service doubled from 4.4 million in 2024 to 8.9 million in 2025. Revenues last year increased by 50% to 11.4 billion and operating profits rose 120% to 4.4 billion.

In Q1 2026 the space segment generated 619 million in revenue with losses of 662 million. And last year it suffered operating losses of 6.4 billion with 3 2 billion in revenue. The Ai business, for its part, reported capital expenditures of 12.7 billion, which kept the division in the red and accounted for the majority of investments doubled to 20.7 billion.

SpaceX, which has 22,000 employees, far fewer than industry rivals such as Boeing and the defence giants, is a leader in space transportation and a key provider of rocket launch services for both NASA and the Pentagon. Twenty per cent of its turnover comes from federal contracts. Its valuation has grown to $1.250 billion after Musk's own artificial intelligence startup, xAI, was acquired this year. The acquisition included the social network X (formerly Twitter), which Musk had snapped up in 2022 in a $44 billion deal.

Two more Ai players are on the way to an IPO. Anthropic, creator of Claude, is expected to more than double its revenue to 10.9 billion in the current quarter and, surprisingly, its first operating profit, according to the Wall Street Journal, a major confidence boost in the prospects of the company, which could go public by the end of the year. Its valuation could soon exceed 1 trillion and rival OpenAi. Which, it transpired, is preparing its own initial placement for September.