finance

SpaceX Just Priced the Largest IPO in History. The Number That Matters Is 94x — and the One That Should Worry You Is 85%.

SpaceX priced the largest IPO ever — $75B at a $1.75 trillion valuation. The numbers that actually matter: ~94x trailing revenue, 85% of the votes still with Musk, and 69% of revenue from Starlink alone.

Amon Taboi

Amon Taboi

— 6 min read

TL;DR

  • SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share, selling 555.6 million shares to raise about $75 billion — the largest IPO in history, eclipsing Saudi Aramco's 2019 record of roughly $25 billion, according to TechCrunch. It began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on June 12.
  • The deal valued SpaceX near $1.75 trillion. Against $18.7 billion of 2025 revenue (per the company's S-1), that's about 94 times trailing revenue — and the stock then closed its first day up ~19% at $160.95, pushing the market cap toward $2.2 trillion, per CNBC.
  • The detail buried under "largest ever": Elon Musk keeps roughly 85% of the voting power through 10-vote Class B shares (~5.6 billion of them), per TechCrunch. Public buyers get economic upside and almost no control.
  • The valuation rests on one segment. Starlink generated $3.26 billion in Q1 2026 — about 69% of total revenue — and was the only profitable division (S-1 analysis). You are largely buying a satellite-broadband subscription business at a moonshot multiple.

SpaceX raised about $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation — the biggest IPO ever recorded — and the stock jumped 19% on day one. Strip away the records and Musk-becomes-a-trillionaire headlines and two numbers tell you what you actually bought: 94x trailing revenue, and 85% of the votes still sitting with one man. This is not a rocket IPO. It's a richly priced bet on a broadband company, with a launch monopoly and an AI lab attached.

What actually happened

SpaceX confidentially filed a draft registration with the SEC on April 1, 2026, made its S-1 public on May 20, and amended it on June 1, per Reuters reporting collected across outlets. It priced on June 11 and opened on Nasdaq (and Nasdaq Texas) under the ticker SPCX on June 12.

The mechanics, per TechCrunch: 555.6 million shares at $135, raising about $75 billion, with the book roughly 4x oversubscribed and an additional 83.3 million shares (~$11 billion) available via the greenshoe. That headline raise comfortably beats Saudi Aramco's 2019 listing — about $25 billion — making this the largest IPO on record. CNBC reported the stock closed its debut at $160.95, up around 19%, and ticked higher after hours to roughly $166.76, lifting the implied market cap toward $2.2 trillion. Off his combined SpaceX and Tesla stakes, Musk became, by several outlets' reckoning, the world's first trillionaire.

The substance: what $1.75 trillion is actually paying for

The financials are genuinely strong for a company this size, and worth stating plainly. Per analysis of the S-1: revenue of $18.67 billion in 2025, up from $14.01 billion in 2024 and $10.39 billion in 2023 — three straight years of ~33–35% growth. Adjusted EBITDA was $6.58 billion in 2025. Q1 2026 revenue was $4.69 billion. Musk said on a pre-IPO JPMorgan livestream that SpaceX has been cash-flow positive since around 2015.

But it still posts GAAP losses — about $4.9 billion of net loss in 2025 — and its prospectus discloses an accumulated deficit of roughly $41.3 billion since 2002. At $1.75 trillion against $18.7 billion of 2025 revenue, you are paying about 94x trailing sales; at Friday's ~$2.2 trillion close, closer to 118x. (One S-1 read, from thetechmarketer, frames the trailing multiple even higher, at 109–116x, depending on the revenue base used.) For scale, the filing itself notes that 200 companies in the S&P 500 booked more revenue last year than SpaceX did. This is a valuation built on what the company will be, not what it earns today.

Concentration is the story the multiple hides. Per the S-1 analysis, Starlink produced $3.26 billion of Q1 2026 revenue — about 69% of the company total — surpassed 10.3 million subscribers, and was the only profitable division, at roughly $1.19 billion of quarterly operating profit. The launch business is the moat; Starlink is the cash engine; everything else — Starship, the February 2026 xAI merger that folded in Grok, the X social network, and data centers, plus Musk's pitch for 100,000+ satellites and "AI data centers in space" — is optionality.

That matters because a satellite-broadband subscription business, however good, does not historically clear 90–120x revenue on its own. You are paying a SpaceX-mythos multiple for a cash flow that is, today, mostly an internet service provider.

The non-obvious angle most coverage missed

The headlines were "largest IPO ever" and "first trillionaire." The structure underneath is the part a buyer should actually price: this is a tiny-float, low-vote instrument.

Per TechCrunch, Musk holds roughly 850 million Class A shares (one vote each) plus about 5.6 billion Class B shares at ten votes each — leaving him with on the order of 85% of the voting power after the raise. So public shareholders are buying economic exposure to Starlink's subscriber curve with effectively no governance say. Layer on the standard 90–180 day lockups: when they expire, early employees, early investors (Antonio Gracias's Valor alone holds ~503 million shares, ~$68 billion), and the bank syndicate can all sell into the same window. A 4x-oversubscribed book and a 19% pop tell you about demand for a scarce float, not about the durability of a $2.2 trillion price. Those are different things, and the lockup calendar is where they meet.

Who wins, who loses

  • Wins: Musk and pre-IPO holders. A trillion-dollar paper fortune, $75 billion of fresh growth capital, and 85% of the votes retained. Hard to design a better outcome for insiders.
  • Wins: the IPO/AI-listing pipeline. A 4x-oversubscribed, record-setting debut reopens the mega-IPO window — this was billed as the first of a trio of AI-adjacent mega-listings expected this year.
  • Mixed: day-one retail buyers. The 19% pop rewarded allocation holders; chasing at ~118x revenue after the close is a different risk than buying the book at 94x.
  • Loses: anyone needing governance or income. No dividend, no votes, GAAP losses, and a $41.3 billion accumulated deficit. This is a pure growth-optionality bet, full stop.

What this means for you

  • Separate the company from the stock. SpaceX is an extraordinary business. SPCX at ~94–118x revenue is a separate question — price discipline matters more here than conviction in rockets.
  • Mark the lockup dates. Find the 90- and 180-day expiries in the prospectus and treat them as known supply events. Insider-heavy cap tables often see real pressure into the first unlock.
  • Underwrite Starlink, not the mythos. Since ~69% of revenue and all the profit is Starlink, your model should live or die on subscriber growth, churn, and margins — not Mars.
  • Respect the vote structure. With ~85% control held by one founder, you are a passenger. Size the position like you cannot influence anything, because you cannot.
  • Treat day-one prints as sentiment, not value. A 4x-oversubscribed pop is a scarcity signal. Let the float settle and a few quarters of public reporting land before deciding what SPCX is worth.

Frequently asked questions

How much did SpaceX raise in its IPO, and at what valuation?

SpaceX sold 555.6 million shares at $135 each to raise about $75 billion, valuing the company near $1.75 trillion, per TechCrunch. That makes it the largest IPO in history, ahead of Saudi Aramco's roughly $25 billion 2019 listing. It trades on Nasdaq as SPCX.

Is SpaceX profitable?

It depends on the measure. Per its S-1, SpaceX reported $18.67 billion of 2025 revenue and $6.58 billion of adjusted EBITDA, and Musk says it has been cash-flow positive since around 2015 — but it still posted roughly $4.9 billion of GAAP net loss in 2025 and carries about $41.3 billion of accumulated deficit since 2002. Starlink was the only profitable division in Q1 2026.

Why is the ~94x revenue multiple a concern?

At a $1.75 trillion valuation against $18.7 billion of 2025 revenue, SpaceX priced at roughly 94 times trailing sales — about 118x at its ~$2.2 trillion first-day close. The filing notes 200 S&P 500 companies had more revenue last year. A multiple that high prices in years of flawless execution, so any growth or margin disappointment has a long way to fall.

What does Musk's 85% voting control mean for shareholders?

Through ~5.6 billion ten-vote Class B shares, Musk retains roughly 85% of the vote, per TechCrunch. Public investors get economic exposure but essentially no governance power — they cannot influence the board, strategy, or capital allocation. Combined with 90–180 day insider lockups, it's a structure that favors the founder and early holders over new public buyers.

Sources

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