The SpaceX IPO: Everything You Need to Know Before SPCX Lists on 12 June

SpaceX is set to debut on Nasdaq on 12 June 2026 under the ticker SPCX — the largest IPO in financial history. Here is what the company does, why markets are paying close attention, and how investors can gain exposure to the space economy. 

For six decades, reaching orbit meant building a rocket, firing it once, and watching a $60 million machine sink into the ocean. The economics were brutal, access was limited to governments, and the pace of progress was slow. 

SpaceX changed that. 

Founded by Elon Musk in 2002, SpaceX set out to make space travel reusable, affordable and commercially viable. Today, it controls approximately 85% of global orbital launches, operates the world’s largest satellite internet network, and is preparing to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on 12 June 2026 under the ticker SPCX. 

At a planned $135 per share and a $1.75 trillion valuation, it will be the largest IPO in financial history, raising $75 billion from investors led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. That figure is more than double Saudi Aramco’s 2019 global record of $29.4 billion, and nearly five times the capital raised by Meta Platforms in its 2012 IPO. 

This article looks at the business behind the headline, the three revenue segments driving its valuation, and the ways investors can gain access to the space economy. 

Why SpaceX Is Different: The Reusability Breakthrough 

The central innovation at SpaceX is not the rocket itself. It is the ability to land it and fly it again. 

Before SpaceX, every orbital rocket was discarded after a single use. The Falcon 9 changed that. According to SpaceX’s own S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, one Falcon 9 first-stage booster has been successfully reflown up to 34 times. The cost to reach low Earth orbit has fallen by approximately 95% compared to the Space Shuttle era, from over $54,000 per kilogram to under $3,000. 

The practical result is a structural advantage that no competitor has yet matched. In 2025, SpaceX completed 165 orbital launches, a new annual world record achieved for the sixth consecutive year. The company delivered 11 of 12 National Security Space Launch missions for the US government, operated all five crewed and cargo missions to the International Space Station on behalf of NASA, and achieved a 99%+ mission success rate across all Falcon rocket flights. In terms of output, SpaceX launched nearly twice as many orbital missions as China did in the same year. 

That operational track record is the foundation on which SpaceX’s three business segments are built. 

The Three Businesses Inside SpaceX 

SpaceX’s S-1 filing discloses three distinct revenue streams. Each is material. Together, they explain why the company is valued far above comparable aerospace businesses. 

1. Launch Services (22% of 2025 Revenue)

Launch services generated $4.1 billion in revenue in 2025. Falcon 9 performs over 90% of global commercial orbital launches, a market position that took two decades to build. Government contracts with NASA, the US Space Force and the intelligence community provide stable, long-term revenue that underpins the entire business. 

The launch segment deliberately operates at a loss, posting a $657 million operating deficit in 2025. The reason is Starship. SpaceX invested approximately $3 billion in Starship research and development during the year, using Falcon 9’s profitability to fund its successor. Starship is a fully reusable super-heavy-lift vehicle designed to carry over 100 tonnes to orbit per flight. The S-1 states it is engineered to reduce the cost of reaching orbit by 99% or more relative to the historical average. If it delivers, it would do for heavy lift what Falcon 9 did for medium lift: collapse the price floor and widen SpaceX’s competitive advantage further. 

2. Starlink Connectivity (61% of 2025 Revenue)

Starlink is the largest and most commercially significant business inside SpaceX. 

In 2019, it had zero subscribers and zero revenue. By Q1 2026, it had grown to 10.3 million paying subscribers across 164 countries, with a constellation of approximately 9,600 satellites in low Earth orbit representing around 65% of all active satellites globally. 

The financial profile is distinctive. In 2025, Starlink generated $11.4 billion in revenue, growing at 49.8% year on year, with a segment adjusted EBITDA margin of 63%. For context, global mobile network operators typically achieve EBITDA margins of 30% to 40%. Traditional satellite operators such as Viasat and Eutelsat operate at around 20%. Starlink’s margin profile is in a different category. 

Starlink is also the only consistently profitable segment within SpaceX on a GAAP basis, generating $4.4 billion in operating profit in 2025. That cash is what funds everything else, including rocket development, Starship, and xAI infrastructure. 

Starlink is not solely a consumer broadband product. A $537 million Department of Defense contract runs through 2027. United Airlines operates inflight connectivity through Starlink. Government and defence customers, alongside aviation and maritime operators, represent the fastest-growing and highest-margin portion of the business. 

In May 2026, SpaceX raised Starlink plan prices for the first time, a move that signals the service has shifted from customer acquisition into monetisation. Analysts at Quilty Space project Starlink revenue will reach approximately $20 billion in 2026, representing around 79% of SpaceX’s projected total revenue for the year. 

3. AI and Compute (17% of 2025 Revenue)

In February 2026, SpaceX completed the acquisition of xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company. The AI segment contributed $3.2 billion in 2025 revenue and represents SpaceX’s long-term bet on orbital AI infrastructure. 

SpaceX’s S-1 describes a vision for data centres operating in space: server farms powered by solar energy, cooled by the vacuum of space, and potentially offering lower latency for AI workloads than terrestrial alternatives. The company expects to begin deploying orbital AI compute satellites as early as 2028. The concept remains early-stage, but its explicit inclusion in the prospectus signals that SpaceX views it as a material future revenue stream. 

The AI segment posted an operating loss of $6.35 billion in 2025, making it the largest drag on SpaceX’s consolidated financials. The xAI business burned a further $2.5 billion in Q1 2026 alone. 

The Valuation Question 

In its S-1 filing, SpaceX described its total addressable market as $28.5 trillion: $370 billion in space, $1.6 trillion in connectivity, and $26.5 trillion in AI. The document describes this as “the largest actionable total addressable market in human history.” 

At the IPO price of $135 per share, SpaceX carries a Price-to-Sales ratio of approximately 94 times its 2025 revenue. That multiple does not reflect the company as it exists today. It reflects market expectations that all three segments execute on their stated roadmaps: Starlink scaling to tens of millions of subscribers, Starship achieving commercial operations, and orbital AI compute generating meaningful revenue. 

SpaceX posted a consolidated GAAP net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025, with an accumulated deficit of $41.3 billion. It has never reported a full-year GAAP profit following the xAI merger, though it generated $791 million in net income in 2024 before the acquisition. 

At the $1.75 trillion valuation, SpaceX would rank as the seventh-largest US company by market capitalisation, valued higher than every major US company except the six largest. 

The Bull Case 

Those constructive on SPCX point to several structural advantages that are difficult to replicate. 

Falcon 9 holds a near-monopoly on commercial orbital launch, performing over 90% of global missions at a 99%+ success rate. Starlink subscriber growth has compounded at 97% annually since 2023, with the service now crossing 12 million customers globally. The US government paid SpaceX $5.9 billion in 2025 across NASA, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. These are multi-year contracts tied to national security infrastructure, not discretionary spending. Every dollar of the $75 billion raised in this IPO goes directly to SpaceX for operations and development. No insiders are selling into the offering. And if Starship delivers on its engineering specifications, it opens entirely new markets that do not yet exist: mass cargo deployment, orbital AI infrastructure and eventually interplanetary transport. 

There is also a structural tailwind specific to this IPO. When SPCX becomes eligible for inclusion in major US equity indices, including the Nasdaq 100 and Russell benchmarks, index-tracking funds that passively mirror those benchmarks will be required to purchase SPCX shares to maintain accurate replication. Analysts have estimated this forced buying at between $22 billion and $27 billion. A Nasdaq rule revision effective May 2026 means SPCX will automatically enter the Nasdaq 100 on its 15th trading day, around 6 July 2026. 

The Bear Case 

Those cautious on SPCX at the current valuation raise equally substantive points. 

SpaceX posted a $4.94 billion net loss in 2025. Q1 2026 alone produced a $4.3 billion loss, an acceleration rather than an improvement. The accumulated deficit stands at $41.3 billion. At 94 times 2025 revenue, the valuation prices in flawless execution across all three business lines for years. Elon Musk retains approximately 82% of voting power after the offering through a dual-class share structure, meaning public shareholders have limited ability to influence board decisions, executive compensation or strategic direction. The xAI segment lost $6.35 billion in 2025 and continues to burn significant capital. When the lockup period expires in December 2026, early employees, venture investors and pre-IPO shareholders all become sellers simultaneously, a known event on a known timeline that institutional traders have been positioning around for months. 

Morningstar has described the valuation as close to twice fair value based on current financials. University of Florida IPO researcher Prof. Jay Ritter, who has studied hundreds of listings, notes that a great company is not the same thing as a great stock, and that the price at listing is no longer low. 

What History Says About IPO Day One 

Based on data covering hundreds of IPO listings since 2020, the average first-day price gain is approximately 30%. However, that figure is an average across a wide range of outcomes. High-profile, heavily anticipated IPOs, where significant investor demand has already been expressed through bookbuilding, tend to exhibit more moderate first-day moves than lesser-known listings, as much of the price discovery has already occurred before the opening bell. 

A longer-term pattern is equally worth noting. Research shows that returns on IPO stocks over 12 to 36 months frequently underperform the broader market after the initial listing period. The pattern is not universal, but it is consistent enough to be material for investors with longer time horizons. The December 2026 lockup expiry is already circled on institutional calendars. 

Two things can be simultaneously true: SPCX may see significant first-day activity, and long-term returns may be less predictable. Your investment time horizon is the most relevant factor in determining which of those observations matters more to you. 

Ways to Gain Exposure to the Space Economy 

For investors interested in the SpaceX IPO or the broader space economy, several instruments are available through Phillip Nova. 

SPCX — SpaceX  

The most direct route. SpaceX lists on Nasdaq on 12 June 2026 under the ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Phillip Nova clients can trade SPCX from the first day of trading. 

Space Economy ETFs 

For investors seeking diversified exposure to the space sector, two actively managed ETFs are available on Phillip Nova today. 

ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX) 

Actively managed by ARK Invest, ARKX holds between 35 and 55 companies focused on orbital and suborbital aerospace, enabling technologies, and defence innovation. Top holdings include Advanced Micro Devices, Rocket Lab, L3Harris Technologies, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions and Teradyne. The fund provides broader exposure to the space and defence ecosystem rather than pure-play space companies. Assets under management stand at approximately $893 million as of early June 2026. Expense ratio: 0.75%. 

Tema Space Innovators ETF (NASA) 

An actively managed pure-play space ETF that invests only in companies earning the majority of their revenue from space-based products and services. NASA already held SpaceX through a special-purpose vehicle pre-IPO, with a 6.70% portfolio allocation as of early June 2026. The fund crossed $1 billion in assets in 37 trading days after its March 2026 launch and held $2.58 billion in AUM by the end of May. Expense ratio: 0.87%. 

Individual Space Stocks 

Investors interested in the space economy beyond SpaceX itself may consider publicly traded companies operating in adjacent areas. 

These companies are early-stage and carry higher execution risk than established businesses. Each holds a distinct position within the space economy and does not replicate SpaceX’s business model directly. 

Choosing the Right Instrument 

Trade SPCX from Day One with Phillip Nova

SpaceX lists on Nasdaq on 12 June 2026. Phillip Nova clients can trade SPCX, ARKX and NASA through a single account, from the first day of trading.

Whether you are looking to own SpaceX directly or gain diversified exposure to the rapidly growing space economy, there are now two ways to participate:

(1) Gain Early Exposure to SpaceX via ETFs (ARKX and NASA)

(2) Trade SpaceX (SPCX) from 12 June 2026