Tag: IPO

SpaceX files first IPO documents with SEC

5:00 am

Starship/Superheavy (version 3) on launchpad
Starship/Superheavy (version 3) on launchpad for launch
later today.

After months of speculation and behind the scenes planning, SpaceX yesterday finally filed the initial public offering (IPO) documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlining the company’s financial standing, in order to give potential stock purchasers an idea of what they are buying.

The filing shows SpaceX’s Connectivity segment, driven primarily by Starlink, has become the company’s financial engine. The segment generated $11.4 billion in revenue during 2025, along with $4.4 billion in operating income and $7.2 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company said the business benefited from subscriber growth [now 10.3 million], wider enterprise adoption and improved network efficiency, with operating income rising more than 120% year over year.

By contrast, the company’s newly acquired AI segment is consuming cash at a remarkable pace. The AI business generated $3.2 billion in revenue during 2025 but posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion as SpaceX ramped investment in AI applications and compute infrastructure. Capital expenditures tied to the AI segment reached $12.7 billion during the year, far exceeding spending in the Space and Connectivity businesses.

…SpaceX’s Space segment generated $4.1 billion in revenue in 2025 and posted a $657 million operating loss. The company spent more than $3 billion on research and development tied to Starship during the year alone. The filing described Starship as the “key enabler” of SpaceX’s long-term growth strategy, saying the vehicle is designed to dramatically improve payload capacity, reusability and launch frequency while opening entirely new categories of missions.

Capital expenditures in the Space segment totaled $3.8 billion in 2025, reflecting the enormous infrastructure demands tied to developing and scaling the Starship program. On a consolidated basis, SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in revenue during 2025, alongside an operating loss of $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $6.6 billion. For the first quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $4.7 billion and an operating loss of nearly $1.9 billion.

In other words, Starlink and rocket sales are paying for the development of Starship and AI.

It appears the company is targeting an early to mid June date for the actual IPO, which some on Wall Street predict could bring in $75 billion in cash. This will be in addition to the $12 billion SpaceX has already raised in private investment capital as well as the more than $12 billion in revenue it earns each year from its Starlink subscribers. Note also that this Starlink annual revenue is presently about half that of NASA’s annual budget, with no upper limit in sight.

In other words, if all goes as planned, the company will have about $100 billion on hand to develop all its business models, with Starship/Superheavy likely leading the way.

I repeat: SpaceX is America’s space program. NASA is merely a sideshow that will become increasingly irrelevant as SpaceX gears up to full speed. And if things go as I believe they will, SpaceX’s success will act to fuel the rest of the American space industry, making the government even less important.

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SpaceX prepares for the biggest IPO in history

9:35 am

SpaceX logo

As SpaceX and numerous banks get ready for the company’s initial public offering of stock (IPO), several tidbits about the structure of the stock and the company post-IPO have been dribbling out.

First, prior to the sale the company split its stock, converting each existing private share from one to five. It appears this action served to protect the value of that previously issued stock, much of which had either been issued to employees or purchased by major investors, including Musk. This split maintains their control over the company.

It also lowered the expected price of the stock in the IPO, ranging from present estimates of $100 to $160.

The absolute level of a stock doesn’t typically matter all that much, but a lower price might help smaller retail investors build positions. Retail shareholders are expected to be important for SpaceX. They hold a lot of Tesla shares.

Second, these preliminary stock arrangements appear designed to guarantee Elon Musk will remain in control of the company, even after it goes public. His shares, numbering 260 million (which could be more than a billion if prior to the stock split), will be given supervoting powers, ensuring his mastery of the company.

When the IPO happens remains uncertain. The Wall Street Journal says June 12, 2026, while Bloomberg says it could be as soon as May 20th.

Either way, it will be a major financial event, and should shake up the entire global launch industry in ways that cannot be predicted. It will certainly give SpaceX the funds it needs to develop Starship/Superheavy fully, making access to space cheap and affordable. It will also allow the company to pursue its goals in space, establishing data centers constellations in orbit and on the Moon (for profit) as well as colonies on Mars.

Whether the IPO will suck all the investment capital out of the rest of the industry remains uncertain, though some are claiming this. In reality, it could just as easily end up doing the opposite, as the market is never zero-sum game. Success in one place usually ends up fueling success all around.

Either way, this IPO is going to change things for sure. It will establish without question what I have been saying for more than a year, that the real American space program is being run by SpaceX, and that NASA’s Artemis program is merely a long term ineffective sideshow that is simply aiding the company achieve its goals.

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SpaceX files initial paperwork for going public

8:54 am

SpaceX logo

SpaceX yesterday filed the first confidential paperwork the the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering (IPO) of public stock, now targeting a June-July time frame.

The filing was reported by Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The SEC said it had no comment on the matter. The filing will lead to a sale of shares by June or July, according to the published reports. Confidential filings are used by companies to share information with the SEC and investors before they have to disclose to the broader public.

How much SpaceX plans to raise through a sale of some of its shares are not yet available due to the confidential nature. But CEO and principal shareholder Elon Musk is expected to control a majority of voting shares once the details are revealed. And it could make Musk, already the world’s richest person, that much richer.

SpaceX was valued at $800 billion and xAI $230 billion at their most recent funding round in January according to PitchBook, a research firm that tracks the valuation of private companies. That puts the combined companies’ worth at more than $1 trillion.

SpaceX also now includes X (formerly Twitter) that Musk bought for $44 billion, so the combined company is actually even larger. We still do not know any details, such as the number of shares to be sold as well as the initial sale price. One rumor has indicated that SpaceX wants to reserve 30% for sale to individuals, a number much higher than usual. Other rumors say that Musk is designing the sale to make sure he remains the majority stock-holder and thus in control of all three companies.

Stock experts have predicted this stock sale could garner SpaceX as much as $75 billion in cash, which would give it the resources to not only build its proposed million-satellite data center constellation in orbit but also develop the Starship/Superheavy infrastructure to build its own data center on the Moon. And along the way SpaceX would have the funds to do its own space program to settle Mars.

If SpaceX does raise that much, it will truly become America’s space program, doing far more that NASA and much faster — financed voluntarily by the American people.

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All space stocks soar in anticipation of SpaceX’s impending IPO

9:51 am

It appears SpaceX’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of publicly-traded stocks, now anticipated to raise as much as $75 billion for the company, has caused stock investors to also pour their money into a whole range of space stocks, causing them all to soar in value.

Initially, it was expected that the IPO could raise $50 billion for the company, but the latest report indicates it could raise as much as $75 billion, with a valuation as high as $1.75 trillion. The colossal figures being thrown around on Wednesday have garnered excitement among investors for other space stocks that are already publicly traded.

Here were the top gainers in the session:

  • Firefly Aerospace: +19%
  • Intuitive Machines: +11%
  • AST SpaceMobile: +9%
  • EchoStar Corporation: 9%
  • Rocket Lab Corporation: +8%

The most recent indications suggest SpaceX will file the offering’s prospectus in the next week or so. If the predictions about it are correct, and SpaceX does raise $75 billion, it would then have on hand more than three times the cash that Congress normally budgets annually to NASA, with an ability to use that money far more effectively.

As I have been saying now for more than a year, the real space program for the United States is being run by SpaceX, not NASA. Expect SpaceX to outpace NASA in their parallel and complementary efforts to build a moonbase.

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Rumors: Musk is considering merging SpaceX with xAI and Tesla

1:56 pm

According to a bunch of unconfirmed stories today from different news outlets, Elon Musk is considering merging SpaceX with xAI and Tesla as part of the initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX that the company is contemplating for sometime this summer.

Reuters reports that Musk wants to merge xAI — his very valuable AI company that has already merged with the company that used to be called Twitter — into SpaceX, his very valuable rocket company. And Bloomberg reports that SpaceX is also considering a merger with Tesla, citing people familiar with the matter.

The SpaceX-xAI tie-up could help Musk build data centers in space. “The combination would bring Musk’s rockets, Starlink satellites, the X social media platform and ​Grok AI chatbot under one roof,” the Reuters report says. Then again, Reuters also says it doesn’t know several key details about the theoretical deal, including “its ‌primary rationale.”

None of this is confirmed, but Musk has not denied it either. If so, this IPO would be the largest ever in the history of the stock markets, by many magnitudes. As noted at the link, xAI is raising gigantic amounts of capital. SpaceX in turn is expected to do even better in its IPO, as a single entity. Tesla is in far less demand, but this merger could be a way to reshape that company to give it a better future. It has already said it is beginning the transition from electronic cars to robots and other autonomous machines.

Whether such a merger will help SpaceX or Musk in his goal of building a Mars colony remains decidedly uncertain. A publicly traded stock company does not have the freedom of action that SpaceX now has as privately owned company.

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SpaceX official confirms it is considering an IPO

10:58 am

In a message to employees on December 12, 2025, SpaceX’s chief financial officer, Bret Johnson, confirmed the company is considering issuing an initial public offering of stock sometime in 2026, but that nothing has been decided in any way.

His announcement also indicated the reason to do so would be to raise enough funds to “ramp Starship to an insane flight rate, deploy AI data centers in space, build Moonbase Alpha and send uncrewed and crewed missions to Mars.”

I think the question is whether the company is raising enough revenue from Starlink to do what it wants, or whether it now sees a need for more investment capital that it cannot get from either that revenue or private stock sales. If it finds in the coming months the former is sufficient, the stock sale will be put off, probably for several years. If it finds the latter, than we shall see this IPO sometime in 2026.

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Unconfirmed anonymous sources at Reuters and Bloomberg claim SpaceX is planning a public stock offering

12:46 pm

Two stories from Reuters and Bloomberg yesterday suggest Elon Musk is considering making SpaceX a publicly traded company, with an initial stock offering sometime in 2026. From the Reuters’ report:

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise more than $25 billion through an initial public offering in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket-maker’s valuation to over $1 trillion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The company’s move towards a public listing, which could rank among the largest global IPOs, has been largely driven by the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite internet business, including plans for direct-to-mobile service and progress in its Starship rocket program for moon and Mars missions.

SpaceX has started discussions with banks about launching the offering around June or July, the person said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential information.

Since both stories rely entirely on anonymous sources, we should not take either very seriously. I only post this now merely to put it on the record. And though Elon Musk has since hinted there might be some truth to both, he has also been very vague about his plans. While a public offering would garner him a lot of cash, it would bring with it a lot of regulatory headaches that would seriously interfere with what he wants to do. In the end I think (and hope) he will decide it ain’t worth it. Starlink right now is bringing in enough money to allow him to accomplish everything, and more.

If anything, these stories illustrate again the corruption in our modern propaganda press. Such stories would have been considered junk four decades ago. Then it was traditional practice that a story needed at least two independent sources, one of which was not anonymous. No longer. Anyone can push any lie, and these news outlets will publicize it, for the sake of clicks.

NOTE: This is a recreation of a post published on December 10, 2025 that was lost during this morning’s server outage.

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SpaceX to launch another secondary private stock sale, hints at going public

9:44 am

UPDATE: Elon Musk has posted on X that this story is “not accurate.”

According to reports yesterday, SpaceX is about to launch another secondary private stock sale that double the value of the company.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.

At the elevated price, Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.

At $800 billion, SpaceX would be the world’s most valuable private company.

As for going public, nothing is confirmed. Musk has made some comments suggesting he is considering the idea, but at the same time has noted the problems such a act would cause him.

Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn’t love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw “spurious lawsuits,” and can “make it very difficult to operate effectively.”

It seems to me it would be a big mistake for Musk to do this. As a public stock-trading company, Musk would lose the freedom he presently has with SpaceX.

Meanwhile, this new private stock offering has done wonders for the value of Echostar’s stock, now that the company’s own stake in SpaceX after selling it some of its FCC licensed spectrum.

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Firefly’s stock sags due to poor revenue numbers in 1st quarter report

10:06 am

Firefly's stock price since IPO

Apparently Wall Street has lost faith in the rocket startup Firefly since that company went public last month. The stock zoomed initially, but has now sagged due to a poor 1st quarter report that showed revenues far below expectations.

The stock’s initial price had been predicted to range from $35 to $39, but quickly rose to $70.

Since then the price has steadily dropped, so that today it sits about about $41.

The news reports seem to think this indicates bad things for the company. I see this as simply a long term correction from the initial over-enthusiasm by buyers. The company had first offered a stock price close to this number. The price is now exactly where Firefly predicted.

If I was interested in buying stock, this might actually be a good time to buy. As a rocket startup, Firefly appears quite solid, being the only startup to successfully soft land on the Moon. Its Alpha rocket has also been cleared for further launches, and though it has had a mixed launch record, with several launches failing due to upper stage issues, it has likely solved these problems.

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Firefly’s stock value far exceeds the predicted price

9:41 am

When Firefly announced it was going public at the end of July, it predicted the stock price would range from $35 to $39, with the initial public offering raising about $600 million in capital for the company. Less than a week later it revised these predictions upward to $45 and about $700 million.

When trading opened yesterday, these numbers were still too low, with the stock immediately trading at $70 per share> and raising almost $900 million.

The space and defense technology company reached a peak valuation of more than $9.84 billion during intraday trading, after its shares began trading at $70 — up more than 55% from the initial public offering price of $45. The stock climbed as high as $73.80 during the session before closing at $60.35.

Firefly sold more than 19 million shares in the offering, raising at least $868 million. By the end of trading Thursday, total volume had approached 30 million shares.

This confidence and enthusiasm by Wall Street reflects Firefly’s success this year in becoming the first private company to land an unmanned spacecraft softly on the Moon. It also suggests the market expects the company’s orbital tug and rockets to succeed. Though its Alpha rocket has had a mixed record of success, its new larger Eclipse rocket is being built in partnership with Northrop Grumman, which has invested $50 million into its development.

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Firefly’s stock sells at price higher than expected

8:54 am

Firefly began selling stock to the public today on the Nasdaq stock market, with the price per share immediately rising to $45 per share, above the expected range of $41-$43, suggesting it could raise as much as$868 million in investment capital.

The strong interest in the stock by investors suggests there is great confidence in the company’s future, following the successful landing of its Blue Ghost lunar lander earlier this year. It has won a total of four lander contracts from NASA. The company also has won both commercial and NASA contracts in connection with its Elytra orbital tug. It has had mixed results with its Alpha rocket, experiencing both launch failures as well as successes, but it is also developing a larger rocket in partnership with Northrop Grumman.

This enthusiasm is noteworthy in that the company is not yet in the black, though its revenues have been increasing.

For the quarter that ended in March, Firefly reported a net loss of about $60.1 million, widening from $52.8 million in the year-ago period. Revenue jumped sixfold to $55.9 million from $8.3 million. Its backlogged totaled about $1.1 billion.

Overall it appears Firefly’s future is solid, suggesting it will join SpaceX and Rocket Lab as a major new space player in the coming years.

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Firefly hopes to raise more than $600 million in initial stock offering

9:03 am

The rocket startup and lunar lander company Firefly yesterday posted details about its initial public stock offering, designed to hopefully raise more than $600 million.

Firefly Aerospace, a market leading space and defense technology company, today announced that it has launched the roadshow for its proposed initial public offering of 16,200,000 shares of its common stock. In addition, Firefly intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 2,430,000 shares of its common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The initial public offering price is expected to be between $35.00 and $39.00 per share.

The company stated it would use the money “to repay outstanding borrowings under its credit agreement, pay any accrued and unpaid dividends on certain series of its preferred stock, and for general corporate purposes.”

The company has not yet announced the date when this stock offering will become available for purchase.

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If you are hoping to buy stock in Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, Musk now says you will have to wait until they have begun regular missions to Mars.

9:45 am

If you are hoping to buy stock in Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, Musk now says you will have to wait until they have begun regular missions to Mars.

This is a change from earlier comments by Musk, which to me suggests that the company’s recent successes and sales has made it profitable enough that he’d rather maintain control than get cash from an IPO. By keeping the company private, Musk can avoid being beholden to stockholders. He can do what he wants.

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