SpaceX’s stock market debut reveals Starlink as revenue engine

SpaceX began trading on Nasdaq Global Select Market and Nasdaq Texas at $135 a share under ticker SPCX, and the public filing behind the debut made one thing clearer: Starlink is doing much of the financial work. The offering closed June 15 after underwriters exercised their full option, bringing gross proceeds to about $85.7 billion.

The company said it is organized into three reporting segments, Space, Connectivity and AI. Space covers Falcon, Dragon and Starship; Connectivity is driven mainly by Starlink; and AI includes Grok, X and compute infrastructure. That structure matters because the filing showed how lopsided the business remains: SpaceX booked $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025, up 33% year over year, but still reported a net loss of about $4.9 billion.

The latest quarter made the pressure easier to see. Revenue grew 15% to $4.7 billion, a sharp slowdown from the 2025 pace, and operating losses widened. The first quarter of 2026 accounted for 75% of the total 2025 losses, underscoring how quickly expenses are outrunning the company’s top-line growth.

Starlink remains the piece investors are really pricing. A February Reuters report put Starlink at roughly 50% to 80% of SpaceX revenue and said Elon Musk’s company was considering a Starlink phone, direct-to-device internet and a space-tracking service. That is the unit most likely to scale, while SpaceX’s AI buildout is adding cost before it adds earnings. Founded by Elon Musk in 2002, SpaceX has raised more than $10 billion in venture funding, and the IPO has forced a clearer reading of a business that private-market enthusiasm could treat as a single, fast-growing story.