The SpaceX IPO: Financials, goals, risks, and more!

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SpaceX is expected to make its public market debut later this week, giving public investors their first chance to invest in the company. Ahead of the listing, the business has opened its books to offer a look under the hood.

So, what does the company actually do? What are the company’s financials like, how do familiar names like X, Grok, and Starlink factor into the story, and what are the company’s long-term goals? 

Read on for our full explainer. 

This article is not investment advice. If you are considering investing in SpaceX, make sure to read the full prospectus before making a decision. 

What does SpaceX do?

SpaceX is broken down into three key segments: Connectivity, Space, and AI. Let’s break them down.

Space

This part of the company is all about the rockets. The company’s longest-standing segment designs, builds, and operates spacecraft and launch vehicles. SpaceX offers launch and mission services to government and commercial customers with its Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon spacecraft. 

The rockets and craft developed by this segment of the business are also used to send the company’s satellites into orbit to power Starlink. 

Connectivity

The connectivity side of SpaceX’s business concerns what it has actually been launching into orbit. Its Starlink satellite network provides space-based high-speed internet access to governments, enterprises, and consumers. 

Revenue here is primarily generated from subscription fees. SpaceX anticipates that Starlink Mobile, which provides improved connectivity to customers of mobile network operator partners and aims to reduce so-called ‘dead zones’, will emerge as a new revenue driver. 

AI

Prior to the February 2026 merger, this arm of the business recently operated as a separate company called xAI. The big names here are Grok and X. 

Grok is the company’s AI model. This large language model is available to consumers for free, or through several tiered subscriptions.

X is the social networking site formerly known as Twitter, which offers a source of advertising and subscription revenue. It also functions as a training pool for Grok, which is integrated into the platform.

But that’s not the full story of this segment. 

SpaceX is also building AI compute. This is the physical infrastructure needed to power AI models. This means the construction of massive data centre clusters, as well as the planned creation of a major chip manufacturing plant with Tesla and Intel. 

In time, SpaceX plans to launch AI data centre infrastructure into space. More on that later. 

The numbers

Now that the remit of each of SpaceX’s business units have been covered, let’s examine the financials. Here are some of the key headline figures from the three months ended 31 March 2026: 

• Revenue: Overall revenue climbed by 15.4% YoY to $4.69bn.
• Operating income: Loss from operations was $1.94bn, down from income of $27m in the same period in 2025. This came as costs and expenses for the period rose by 64.3% YoY. 
• Net income: A loss of $4.28bn, up from $528m in the same period 12 months prior.
• Capital expenditure: This stood at $10.10bn in the three months ended 31 March, up from $4.14bn in the same period in 2025. 
• Cash: The company has cash and cash equivalents of $15.85bn, and total assets of $102.09bn. 

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Let’s dig into the numbers by each business segment. 

Connectivity is where SpaceX is making its money right now. 

This arm of the business generated operating income of $1.19bn in the quarter ended 31 March, as revenue climbed by 31.6% to $3.26bn. This has been driven by a more-than-doubling of Starlink subscriber numbers, from 5 million to 10.3 million. 

However, ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) declined from $86 to $66. In short, Starlink has expanded its user base but is earning less from each customer. 

Meanwhile, Space has seen operating losses widen from $70m to $662m. Revenues dipped by 28.4% to $619m due to fewer customer launches than in the comparable period in 2025. Costs and expenses were driven higher by increased research and development spend, as the business invested in new production and launch capabilities. 

Finally, the AI segment’s operating loss widened from $936m to $2.47bn across the same period. Revenue climbed by 12.5% to $818m, driven by Grok and X subscription growth. 

A total of $7.72bn, or 76.4%, of the business’s capital expenditure stems from AI investment. This part of the business might be sustaining the largest losses at the moment, but it is where SpaceX sees the most growth potential. 

What’s the goal?

Looking at the immediate future, SpaceX says it will use IPO proceeds to fund its growth strategy. 

This means expansion of existing AI compute infrastructure, launch infrastructure, and launch vehicles, as well as growth of its satellite constellations and general corporate use.

At the moment, the connectivity segment’s Starlink business offers a platform for growth, showing rising revenue and proof of SpaceX’s ability to design, launch, and operate a network of thousands of satellites.

Looking forward, SpaceX says it has a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion. The bulk of this addressable market, some $26.5 trillion, is from AI. 

Key to this is the company’s belief that its ability to manufacture AI hardware, achieve space-launch success, and deploy in-orbit networking technology will enable it to deploy orbital data centres. 

This starts on terra firma, where the business already owns and operates large data centre clusters and is aiming to build the terafab, a planned chip manufacturing plant with the capability of producing one terawatt of AI compute per year. 

SpaceX believes the next step is to take its capabilities into orbit. 

But why should blasting data centres into space make them more effective?

Artificial intelligence is energy-intensive. The SpaceX thesis is that orbital data centres will benefit from a constant solar energy supply, giving the business a major cost advantage over earth-bound competition. 

SpaceX expects to begin deploying AI compute satellites as early as 2028. 

What are the risks?

As with any investment, there are a number of risks to keep in mind. 

For UK investors, these include, but are not limited to:

• Starship development: Failure and delays to at-scale Starship development would affect the business, its financials, and its future prospects.
• Regulatory and licensing risk: SpaceX operates in heavily regulated sectors, including aerospace, telecoms, satellite communications, AI infrastructure, and defence. This means it is heavily dependent on approvals, permits, and licences from relevant authorities. 
• Launch execution: The business’s success and future goals are highly reliant on its ability to successfully and safely launch spacecraft, particularly its orbital data centres. This could be significantly impacted by launch failures or delays, which may have a material impact on the business.
• Space: Launching spacecraft and satellites into space means exposing key and costly technologies to a harsh environment. Issues such as collisions with space junk could result in technology failing and an adverse impact on the business.
• Commercial viability: Future demand and the viability of SpaceX technology are hard to predict. Industries like AI are highly competitive and rapidly changeable. 
• Third parties: SpaceX is reliant on third parties for the manufacturing and supply of key components. Disruption to third-party performance could impact the success of launch, connectivity, and AI services.
• Funding and cash burn: SpaceX’s goals are highly capital-intensive. This increases the risk the business could run out of money or have to seek funding on unattractive terms. 
• Future tech: Some business goals are reliant on technological innovations which have not yet been realised. These might prove to be impossible, uneconomic, or may simply not function as intended. 

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If you want to know more, read Freetrade’s guide to the more general risks and opportunities associated with IPOs. 

To apply to take part in the SpaceX IPO through Freetrade, click here.