SpaceX just showed us everything.

SpaceX filed its S-1 this week. For the first time, we can see inside the most valuable private company on Earth.

And what we found is wild.

The top line looks huge. SpaceX pulled in $18.67 billion in sales last year. Starlink alone brought in over $11 billion… up nearly 50% from the year before. The sat-net now has more than 10 million paying users and 9,600 birds in orbit. That part of the firm made a clear profit.

But here's the catch.

SpaceX lost $4.9 billion in 2025. How does a company with $18 billion in sales lose that much cash? Two words: xAI.

Let me explain… When SpaceX merged with Elon Musk's AI firm in early 2026, it took on a huge cost. The AI arm lost $6.36 billion in 2025. It lost $2.47 billion more in just the first three months of this year. Strip that out, and SpaceX's core space and Starlink units are in the black.

So the firm going public at $1.75 trillion is not just a space stock. It's a space stock with a massive AI bet bolted to it.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "The Starlink growth will cover it." And maybe it will. Starlink's growth rate is stunning… from $8.2 billion in 2024 to $11 billion-plus in 2025. But the AI side burned through nearly $9 billion in just 15 months. That's a lot of ground to make up.

And then there's Starship. SpaceX told the SEC it spent more than $15 billion on Starship so far. That's 37 times what it cost to build Falcon 9. The rocket arm made $4 billion in sales last year, but still ran at a loss thanks to all that R&D spend… roughly $3 billion in 2025 and $930 million in Q1 alone.

The roadshow starts June 5. Banks like Goldman, JPMorgan, and Citi are lined up. If it works, SpaceX will raise up to $75 billion… the largest IPO ever. Bigger than Saudi Aramco. Bigger than Alibaba.

But investors need to read the fine print. They're not just buying rockets and sat-net. They're buying an AI lab that bleeds cash, a $15 billion Starship gamble, and 36 pages of risk items.

It could pay off huge. It could also be the most complex bet in market history.

Watch the fine print.

The CBO says Trump's Golden Dome missile shield will cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years. That's nearly seven times the White House's own $175 billion price tag from last May. The space-based layer alone… a web of 7,800 sats… eats 70% of the build cost. The Pentagon pushed back, calling the CBO math "based on old data." But lawmakers on both sides want answers. If it goes forward, this could be the largest space-related spend in U.S. history.

Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt just raised $275 million at a $2 billion mark for Cowboy Space, the firm once known as Aetherflux. The plan: build rockets whose upper stages turn into AI data centers once in orbit. Each sat will hold about 800 GPUs and make one megawatt of power from the sun. Index Ventures led the round. The firm has now raised $355 million total and aims to launch its first test sat later this year.

Rocket Lab locked in five Neutron flights and three Electron flights for a secret buyer… its largest launch deal to date. The deal pushed the total backlog past $2.2 billion and the flight list to over 70 missions. Q1 sales hit a record $200.3 million, up 63.5% from a year ago. Neutron's first flight is still on track for Q4 2026, and CEO Peter Beck says the team is now testing full flight loads on the second stage.

Starship V3 Takes to the Sky… and $15 Billion Rides With It

As you read this, SpaceX is launching… or just launched… the biggest test in Starship's life.

Flight 12 left the pad from a brand-new launch site in South Texas last night. It's the first V3 Starship, the first use of Raptor 3 engines, and the first flight off Pad 2. In other words, almost nothing on this rocket flew before.

The goals are clear. Launch, split the two stages, splash the booster in the Gulf, and drop the ship in the Indian Ocean about an hour later. Along the way, SpaceX hopes to put out 20 dummy Starlink sats and two live ones that scan the heat shield from the outside.

But why does this one matter so much?

Because of what comes next. If Flight 12 works, Flight 13 could be the first orbital Starship flight. And SpaceX told the SEC it needs to start launching Starlink V3 sats on Starship by the end of this year. Each flight can hold up to 60 of them.

NASA needs it too. Starship is the pick for the Artemis 4 moon landing in 2028. And the Artemis 3 dock test in orbit is penciled in for late 2027.

So this isn't just a test flight. It's the hinge point for NASA's moon plan, SpaceX's IPO pitch, and the next wave of Starlink growth… all at once.

Big night in South Texas.

With SpaceX's IPO, you'll hear the term "S-1" a lot. So what is it?

An S-1 is the form a company files with the SEC before it sells stock to the public for the first time. Think of it as a full X-ray of the firm. Sales, costs, debts, risks, the boss's pay… it's all in there.

The law says a firm must file this at least 15 days before its "roadshow." That's when the CEO and top execs fly from city to city to pitch big fund groups on why they should buy shares.

Here's what smart readers look for in any S-1. First, the cash burn. Does the firm spend more than it makes? If so, how fast? Second, the growth rate. Are sales going up fast enough to close the gap? Third, the risk list. Every S-1 has a section called "Risk Factors." SpaceX's has 36 pages of them… from launch fails to legal fights tied to its AI and social media deals.

And fourth… who owns what. SpaceX's filing shows Elon Musk holds about 42% of the firm. That means he keeps tight control even after the stock goes live.

Most S-1s are dry reads. This one is not. It's the first look inside a firm that could be worth $2 trillion by the time it starts trading.