As AI rivals Anthropic and OpenAI race toward IPO, SpaceX has now filed publicly for its own listing, revealing big losses and Musk’s iron grip on ownership.
In a filing yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SpaceX for the first time revealed its financial standing, with billions in losses reported. It reported a net loss of $4.28bn on revenue of $4.69bn for Q1, compared with a net loss of $528m on revenue of $4bn last year.
Notwithstanding those losses, the IPO is expected to be the largest listing in history if Musk can pull it off and raise the targeted $75bn, which would far exceed the 2019 listing of Saudi Aramco for $29bn, the current record holder for largest IPO.
The really striking element in the filing is the level to which Musk will retain iron clad control over the company, and how difficult it would be to remove him in the future.
As SpaceX’s “founder, chief executive officer, chief technical officer, and chairman of the board of directors” Musk’s class B shares will likely ensure board control for the foreseeable.
