Surprises in SpaceX IPO Prospectus
May 21, 2026

By Chris Forrester



As expected, SpaceX issued its 308-page S-1 Prospectus for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) after the markets closed on May 20th. There were some surprises, not least that its losses last year were $4.9 billion (€4.27bn) on revenues of $18.7 billion.

The Prospectus shows that Elon Musk will not just remain the largest shareholder but will dominate the business thanks to his ‘10 votes per share’ on Class B shares and thus giving him absolute voting control. The business will list on the NASDAQ as ‘SPCX’. Musk holds 849 million Class A shares, and 5.6 billion Class B shares.


The document, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), states that its Starlink broadband service has only about 10.3 million subscribers, well below the 12 million which have been informally reported. Starlink registered $1.2 billion in operating income during Q1 this year. SpaceX also provides satellite-to-mobile texting and over-the-top voice services to approximately 7.4 million monthly unique devices across approximately 30 countries.

“The number of [Starlink subscribers] is distinct from the number of unique devices, account holders, end users or physical persons. An individual, household, or business may share a single Service Line among multiple end-users. Likewise, an individual, household, or business may maintain multiple service lines (e.g., both a Residential Service Line and a separate Roam Service Line, which would be defined as two separate Service Lines and therefore two Starlink Subscribers,” stated the Prospectus. Overall income, including its lucrative SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, was $10.7 billion in Q1.

The Prospectus unashamedly names AST SpaceMobile as a potential major competitor (and SES-backed Lynk Global). Other key competitors for its rocket and connectivity business are listed as: United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab (launch); Viasat, Eutelsat OneWeb, Iridium, terrestrial ISPs/MNOs (connectivity); OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft (AI).

In 2025, SpaceX generated $4.1 billion in revenue (largely from commercial and US government missions), Connectivity generated $11.4 billion (driven by Starlink), and AI contributed $3.2 billion while the company invested very heavily in training infrastructure and models.

Musk took home a modest $54,000 in salary in 2025 but most of the billionaire’s compensation is made up of two massive equity packages.

Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO, made $86 million last year, mostly in the form of stock options, and owns 5.5 million Class A shares and 7.1 million Class B shares.

Starlink, as a service, is available across 164 countries, territories, and markets. Partnerships: About 30 MNOs for Starlink Mobile across six continents; airline, cruise, and enterprise partners. Later this year, the company expects to start deploying its Version 3 satellites, capable of download speeds of 1 Tb/s for each satellite. A single Starship launch could carry 60 of these satellites per launch.

Starlink ARPU for the quarter ending on March 31st 2026 is $66 per month (down from $86 in 2025)

SpaceX has now launched its rockets about 650 times, 85 per cent having reused one of the rocket’s boosters.

“For the three months ended March 31, 2026, our Connectivity segment generated revenue of $3,257 million, income from operations of $1,188 million, and Segment Adjusted EBITDA of $2,087 million. Our Connectivity segment, primarily driven by Starlink, generated revenue of $11,387 million, income from operations of $4,423 million, and Segment Adjusted EBITDA of $7,168 million in 2025, representing year-over-year growth of 49.8 percent, 120.4 percent, and 86.2 percent, respectively, benefiting from subscriber growth, increasing enterprise adoption, and continued improvement in network efficiency,” stated the Prospectus. “For the three months ended March 31, 2026, capital expenditures for our Space segment was $1,052 million, for our Connectivity segment was $1,332 million and for our AI segment was $7,723 million. In 2025, capital expenditures for our Space segment was $3,832 million, for our Connectivity segment was $4,178 million and for our AI segment was $12,727 million.”

“Our mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars. To do this, we have formed the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth with unmatched capabilities to rapidly manufacture and launch space-based communications that connect the world, to harness the Sun to power a truth-seeking artificial intelligence that advances scientific discovery, and ultimately to build a base on the Moon and cities on other planets,” continued the Prospectus.

The ‘boilerplate’ risk elements stated: “We incurred net losses of $(4,937) million and $(4,628) million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2023, respectively, and a net loss of $(4,276) million for the three months ended March 31, 2026. We may not achieve or, if achieved, sustain profitability in the future. As of March 31, 2026, we had an accumulated deficit of $41,311 million.”

The company does not anticipate paying dividends in cash to its holders of common stock in the foreseeable future, cautioned the Prospectus.