The wait is over.
On Wednesday, SpaceX filed its S-1, giving a rare look at the finances and far-reaching ambitions behind Elon Musk’s rocket company.
The prospectus showed a business gearing up for what could be the biggest public offering in history, while also laying out a vision that expands from Starlink and AI compute to space data centers, asteroid mining, and a Mars colony.
The S-1 filing also pulled back the curtain on the money moving through Musk’s sprawling business empire, the role early investors and Wall Street banks could play in the listing, and how retail traders may be able to buy in.
Here’s a look at the biggest revelations from SpaceX’s IPO filing.
What we learned from the filing
SpaceX is no longer only a rocket company, and its IPO filing showed how far its ambitions extend beyond launchpads and satellites. The company reported $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025 but posted a $4.9 billion loss as it invested heavily in its AI business.
In total, SpaceX said its total addressable market could reach $28.5 trillion, with most of that tied to AI. That’s roughly the size of the US GDP in 2024.
Beyond the numbers, the filing showed how ambitious — and unusual — SpaceX’s pitch to public investors is. It lays out a vision of a sprawling future that entails mobile connectivity, orbital data centers, and, eventually, Musk’s interplanetary goal of building a permanent colony on Mars.
The business behind SpaceX
SpaceX’s filing offered a rare look at the money moving through Musk’s business empire. The company spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Tesla products, including Megapacks and Cybertrucks, while its acquisition of xAI folded Grok, along with its legal and reputational risks, into the IPO prospectus.
SpaceX is also monetizing its AI infrastructure, with Anthropic agreeing to pay $1.25 billion a month for access to its Colossus data centers. There’s another notable asset on the books: about 19,000 bitcoins, worth about $1.5 billion as of Thursday’s price.
Musk’s expanding empire
One point made clear in the SpaceX S-1 filing: Musk is taking the company public without giving up control. He would remain CEO, chief technology officer, and board chairman, while holding more than 85% of the company’s voting power.
The filing also showed how deeply SpaceX is intertwined with the rest of Musk’s business empire. Last year, SpaceX made more than $660 million in payments, goods, and services to Musk’s other companies, including Tesla, The Boring Company, X, and xAI.
The filing also outlined future markets, including orbital AI compute, asteroid mining, space tourism, and manufacturing on the moon and Mars.
What happens next
With SpaceX’s first formal step toward what could be the largest IPO in history, banks and early investors stand to get a massive payday from the company’s listing. Goldman Sachs is leading the offering, with other major banks advising on the deal.
Retail investors will get a shot to buy in, too, with access to Class A shares. The company plans to trade under the ticker “SPCX.”
The listing could ripple through the broader market. SpaceX is set to enter the Nasdaq 100 under a new “fast entry” rule, which means funds that track that index will also quickly buy up SpaceX shares. Meanwhile, the company’s debut could set the tone for other major tech companies considering IPOs.
