SpaceX, Ready to Go Public in Massive IPO, Reveals That Starlink Is Paying the Bills
Satellite internet unit is the most profitable segment in a company losing billions on rockets, AI, and social media.
Georgina Mackie
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2026 – SpaceX filed for what could be the largest initial public offering in history Wednesday, revealing for the first time that its satellite internet business, not its rockets, keeps the company financially viable.
The 250-page prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, with losses deepening in the first quarter of 2026.
The offering is expected to raise roughly $75 billion which would vastly surpass the current title holder for largest IPO ever, Saudi Aramco's $26 billion debut in 2019.
SpaceX has said the tens of billions raised from investments will help finance projects to set up a base on the moon, put data centers in orbit and possibly one day send a man to Mars.
Starlink carries the company
SpaceX’s Connectivity business, primarily driven by Starlink, generated $11.4 billion in revenue last year, up 50 percent year-over-year. The connectivity business made up 60 percent of SpaceX’s total revenue in 2025.
Starlink had 10.3 million subscribers across 164 countries and territories as of March 31, 2026, served by approximately 9,600 satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Subscriber growth has been rapid: the service had 2.3 million customers at the end of 2023, 4.4 million at the end of 2024, and more than doubled again through 2025.
That growth has come at the cost of per-subscriber revenue. Monthly average revenue per user fell from $99 in 2023 to $66 in the first quarter of 2026, as the company expanded into international markets and introduced cheaper service tiers. SpaceX says it expects that decline to continue.
The company said it expects to start launching its next-generation V3 satellites, designed to offer 1 Terabit per second (Tbps) of download capacity, in the second half of this year. It told the SEC it plans to launch orbiting data center satellites as soon as 2028.
Beyond rural broadband
SpaceX’s filing notes that its satellite-to-phone service, Starlink Mobile, currently connects “7.4 million monthly unique devices across approximately 30 countries” through partnerships with carriers like T-Mobile.
SpaceX used the filing to signal that the service is not only for filling rural coverage gaps. The company said it intends Starlink Mobile to compete for customers “no matter where they are located, whether in rural, suburban, or urban areas.”
Central to that ambition is spectrum. The FCC approved SpaceX's acquisition of EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses on May 12, and SpaceX expects to close on the purchase in November 2027.
SpaceX says next-generation mobile satellites, combined with that spectrum, will deliver connectivity “on par with terrestrial mobile networks.”
The struggling units
SpaceX's AI segment, built around xAI, which Musk folded into the company in February 2026, along with social media platform X, formerly Twitter, lost $6.4 billion in operations on just $3.2 billion in revenue last year. Some SpaceX investors criticized those acquisitions as bailouts for money-losing businesses.
The rocket and launch business also lost money, posting a $657 million operating loss in 2025 despite substantial government contracts.
The filing notes that a fifth of SpaceX's revenue last year came from the federal government, a dependency that has drawn scrutiny given Musk's relationship with the Trump administration.
Musk's control and compensation
Musk and certain other shareholders hold a special class of stock carrying 10 votes per share, giving them the ability to elect a majority of the board. The filing warns prospective investors: “This will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters and the election of our directors.”
Musk’s annual salary is $54,080, unchanged since 2019. Additional compensation comes through stock grants that vest only as SpaceX hits market capitalization milestones up to $7.5 trillion and only if Musk helps establish a permanent human colony on Mars of at least one million people.
SpaceX can begin its investor roadshow on June 4.
