SpaceX plans to cement
founder Elon Musk’s control after its IPO, granting him and a
small group of insiders super-voting shares that will outweigh
other investors, according to excerpts of the company’s IPO
filing reviewed by Reuters.
The prospectus, which was confidentially filed this month,
provides fresh details of the company’s financials and corporate
governance.
Upon completion of the offering, Musk will stay on as chief
executive officer, chief technical officer, and will serve as
chairman of SpaceX’s nine-member board of directors.
Though Musk was paid $54,080 last year, according to the
excerpts, he stands to gain billions in equity after the
company’s stock market debut.
SpaceX is targeting a listing valuation of roughly $1.75
trillion with a $75 billion raise, which would make it the
largest initial public offering in history.
President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell
received $85.8 million in total compensation last year, Reuters
previously reported, while Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen
was paid $9.8 million.
ANALYST DAY
Some of the executives are driving Musk’s IPO ambitions with
three days of meetings planned this week for Wall Street
analysts, starting with a tour and briefings at SpaceX’s
Starbase launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The filing excerpts show SpaceX will use a dual-class equity
structure that gives Class B shareholders 10 votes each,
concentrating power with Musk and a handful of other insiders,
while Class A shares sold to public investors will carry one
vote each.
They also outline provisions that could limit shareholders’
ability to influence board elections or pursue certain legal
claims, forcing disputes into arbitration instead and
restricting where they can be brought.
While such structures are common among founder-led
technology companies, they limit public shareholders’ ability to
influence strategy or challenge management.
FIRST LOOK AT FINANCIALS
The filing gives investors the first look at SpaceX’s
financial health, especially after Musk combined the rocket
maker with his social media and AI company xAI this year.
The combined company ended 2025 with about $24.8 billion in
cash on hand, and had total assets of $92 billion against total
liabilities of $50.8 billion.
Its satellite internet business Starlink generated billions
in profit last year, helping to offset heavy losses inherited
when it bought founder Elon Musk’s social media and artificial
intelligence company xAI this year, the excerpts show.
SpaceX swung to a $4.94 billion consolidated loss in 2025 on
revenue of $18.67 billion as it invested heavily in xAI’s
artificial intelligence infrastructure, from a $791 million
profit and $14.02 billion in revenue the year before.
It lost $4.63 billion on $10.4 billion in revenue in 2023.
AI SPENDING
Its losses stem from an almost fivefold increase in capital
spending over two years to $20.74 billion last year, more than
half of that on AI spending.
The company’s successful Starlink satellite internet service
is subsidizing much of that spending, generating $4.42 billion
in operating profit but accounting for less than a quarter of
its total capital expenditures.
Capital expenditure at the AI segment surged to $12.7
billion from $5.6 billion the prior year, pushing SpaceX’s total
capex above $20.7 billion, more than double the prior year.
That remains a fraction of spending by the largest
technology companies on AI infrastructure: Meta, with a
comparable market capitalization of about $1.7 trillion, had
capital expenditure of $72 billion in 2025.
The Information previously reported some aspects of the
financials.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.