SpaceX has set out details for what could become a landmark initial public offering, with Elon Musk aiming to take the space company public despite its continuing operating losses. In a filing announced Wednesday, SpaceX described itself as pursuing ambitious goals for moon and Mars missions while it navigates the expectations that come with a potential public-market debut.
The prospectus did not assign a dollar figure to how much Musk hopes to raise, but the company’s disclosure has prompted outside estimates of about $75 billion. If such a figure were correct, it would surpass Saudi Aramco’s $26 billion IPO, which previously set the benchmark for the largest debut by a single company.
SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., told investors that proceeds from the planned stock sale would finance projects to put people on the moon and Mars. It framed that effort as part of a quest to make humans an intergalactic species, and it included language warning that it did not want humans to meet the fate of dinosaurs, according to the filing.
The filing also laid out a compensation structure for Musk that ties stock awards to specific milestones. The prospectus described compensation in which some of Musk’s awards would be granted only if he maintains “a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants.” The filing also indicated that Musk’s stock grants would be divided into 15 nearly equal amounts and would vest only as the company reaches predetermined market-cap goals.
Investors and analysts will be focused on whether the incentives align with the company’s near-term financial performance. The filing showed SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year even as it reported $18.7 billion in revenue, and it said losses continued to build at the start of this year as well.
SpaceX’s business profile includes both cash-generating and loss-making segments. The prospectus said Starlink, its satellite communications business, generated $4.4 billion in operating income last year. It described Starlink as using 10,000 satellites in low orbit to provide internet service to 10 million people in 150 countries and territories.
Alongside Starlink’s contribution, SpaceX also disclosed that two Musk-linked acquisitions it had moved into its structure—X and xAI—were financially difficult. The filing said its AI business lost $6.4 billion in operations last year, and it pointed to the broader uncertainty about those units that some SpaceX investors had criticized as bailouts.
Another issue in the filing relates to government contracting and the scrutiny that can follow a company closely associated with political leadership. The company said it has won contracts worth $6 billion from NASA and the Defense Department and other government agencies in the past five years, according to USAspending.gov, and it noted that a fifth of its revenue last year came from the federal government. Given Musk’s relationship with the Trump administration, the filing and reporting around it said government ethics lawyers and watchdogs had raised questions about whether the company received special treatment to win taxpayer money.
SpaceX said it would begin the IPO investor pitch effort, known as a “road show,” 15 days after it makes its prospectus public, which the reporting said would be June 4. The company’s disclosure also described a governance structure that would give certain shareholders a class of stock with 10 votes per share, and it warned that this would limit or preclude their ability to influence corporate matters and the election of directors.
In separate disclosure language to prospective investors, SpaceX said it plans a structure in which Musk and certain other shareholders would hold significant control through that voting arrangement. The filing arrives with investors weighing the potential size of the stock sale against the company’s losses, the performance of its units beyond rockets, and the questions about federal contracting that have drawn attention in recent years.