SpaceX reveals plans for what could be the biggest-ever initial public
offering
[May 21, 2026] By
BERNARD CONDON
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk announced plans Wednesday for one of the
biggest stock sales ever by taking public a space company that is
currently losing billions of dollars a year.
A filing shows that his SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last
year on $18.7 billion in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the
start of this year, too.
The prospectus did not put a dollar figure on the amount Musk hopes to
raise, but various reports have put it at $75 billion or so. An offering
of that size would easily surpass the current title holder, Saudi Aramco,
the oil giant that went public seven years ago and raised $26 billion.
SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has said
the money will help finance projects to put people on the moon and Mars
in its quest to make humans an intergalactic species as they face
existential threats that could wipe out civilization.
“We do not want humans to have the same fate as dinosaurs,” the filing
states.
The prospectus reads in part like a Hollywood fantasy version of the
future, detailing in one section how part of Musk’s compensation will be
granted only if he maintains “a permanent human colony on Mars with at
least one million inhabitants.”
Short of that, the stock sale alone could make Musk, a major owner who
founded SpaceX in 2002, the world’s first trillionaire. Forbes currently
puts his net worth at $839 billion.
In addition to making reusable rockets to hurl astronauts into orbit,
SpaceX has other businesses, some successful, some struggling — and with
plenty of questions marks.
The document shows that Starlink, the world’s largest satellite
communications company, is a big source of cash for the company,
generating $4.4 billion in operating income last year. The business uses
10,000 satellites in low orbit to provide internet service to 10 million
people in 150 countries and territories.
Among the struggling businesses are two Musk units that were recently
acquired by SpaceX — his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and
his artificial intelligence business, xAI. Those purchases were blasted
by some SpaceX investors as bailouts because they are big money losers.
The prospectus said its AI business lost $6.4 billion in operations last
year.
The original SpaceX business, making rockets and staging launches, has
been helped by massive government contracts, which raises questions that
could come back to haunt the company. Given Musk’s close relation to the
Trump administration, government ethics lawyers and watchdogs have asked
if he has gotten special treatment to win taxpayer money and whether
that good luck will run out once President Donald Trump is out office.
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SpaceX's latest version of its mega rocket Starship is prepared for
a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP
Photo/Eric Gay)
 SpaceX 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. The
company noted in its filing that a fifth of its revenue last year
was from the federal government.
Musk was the biggest donor to Trump’s presidential campaign and is
still a big backer despite their sometimes rocky relationship after
his stewardship of the government cost-cutting effort called DOGE
early last year.
Like many corporate CEOs, Musk’s compensation will go far beyond his
annual salary, which was $54,080 in 2025 and has remained unchanged
since 2019, according to the filing.
The prospectus says stock grants for him would be sliced into 15
nearly equal amounts — 67 million shares each — and would vest only
as the company achieves preset market cap goals. In addition to the
Martian colony, SpaceX’s stock market value would have to reach $7.5
trillion for him to receive the full award.
He would get even more stock awards if SpaceX manages to get giant
data centers the size of football fields in space.
The document shows Musk will be able to exert big control over the
business.
It says he and certain other shareholders will receive shares in a
special class of stock that gives them 10 votes for each share they
hold. Those shareholders will be able, among other things, to elect
a majority of the company’s board of directors.
“This will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate
matters and the election of our directors,” SpaceX said in a warning
to prospective investors.
SpaceX will be able to pitch the offering to investors — in what’s
known in Wall Street parlance as a “road show” — 15 days after
making its prospectus public. In this case, that works out to June
4.
___
Associated Press writer Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed.
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