SpaceX’s potential initial public offering is arriving with details that spotlight both its traditional rocket business and its newer push into artificial intelligence. The company filed financial information with U.S. regulators ahead of a possible share sale that could occur in mid-June, NPR reported. The filing also points to steep spending tied to xAI’s data-center development and to development of Starship, alongside large early-quarter losses across key units.
The timing matters for Wall Street because it could add another high-profile technology listing to a calendar that investors have watched for months. NPR reported that analysts have also been anticipating potential listings from OpenAI and Anthropic—another sign that public markets could soon price some of the most valuable private companies linked to the AI boom.
NPR said SpaceX did not disclose how much it intends to raise, but previous media reporting has put the figure at about $80 billion. If the offering proceeds at that scale, the report said it could become one of the largest IPOs ever, potentially valuing SpaceX at more than $1 trillion and putting it among the most valuable companies in the world.
The company’s spending plans, as described in the filing, also reflect a strategy that combines launch capabilities with data and compute ambitions. NPR reported that xAI more than doubled capital spending to $12.7 billion last year, driven by data center development and construction, while SpaceX spent an additional $3 billion last year developing Starship. In the first quarter, NPR reported that two of SpaceX’s three main businesses lost money, including the rocket-launching operation and the company’s AI unit.
In results that could influence how investors interpret any public valuation, NPR reported that SpaceX’s rocket-launching business posted an operating loss of $662 million, while its AI business lost nearly $2.5 billion. NPR also reported that Starlink—its satellite communications business—was the only unit to turn an operating profit, producing $1.2 billion, and that SpaceX had a net loss of nearly $4.3 billion between January and March on total revenue of $4.7 billion.
NPR also tied the IPO’s market story to Elon Musk’s role inside the company. NPR reported that documents filed Wednesday show Musk controls 85% of voting power in SpaceX. Musk founded the company in 2002 and SpaceX’s stated goal has included building a self-sustaining colony on Mars, NPR said, with the company later expanding through contracts that have included defense and NASA work.
In assessing what an IPO might mean for investors, NPR described the structural opportunity and risk. IPOs allow individual and other public-markets investors to buy shares in high-profile companies and can raise large sums for both the company and earlier private backers. But NPR also reported that investors face risks, including the tendency of post-IPO share prices to underperform broader markets.
Franco Granda, a research analyst who covers SpaceX for PitchBook, said in NPR reporting that “Historically speaking … it’s pretty jarring how bad it is,” referring to post-IPO underperformance. He added that public offerings can increase scrutiny from financial regulators and the public, and that for closely watched companies, a “big” valuation can be difficult to justify under that heavier scrutiny.
NPR also reported that SpaceX’s public-market narrative remains closely linked to Musk himself, with one analyst suggesting valuation depends on belief in Musk more than on current operations. Tim Farrar, president of TMF associates, told NPR that “The valuation is completely dependent on the degree to which people believe in Elon Musk,” and added that it is “not dependent on the current business.” Farrar said that while the launch division contributes a smaller portion of revenue than Starlink, Starlink alone may not fully justify a trillion-dollar valuation.
As this listing process moves from private expectations toward public pricing, the debate is likely to center on the same question that runs through the filing’s numbers: how investors will connect large spending—on rockets and data centers—with a profile of early losses and a dominant revenue engine tied to Starlink. And as the company heads toward its mid-June IPO window, it will also face the market’s demand for explainable value, not just the momentum that private growth can carry.