Exclusive-SpaceX conquered the stars, now eyes bigger opportunity in AI

By Echo Wang and Deepa Seetharaman

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (Reuters) - Over the last quarter century, Elon Musk revived space travel, turning cosmic exploration into thriving businesses. For its next act, Musk's SpaceX is eyeing an even bigger opportunity in something more prosaic: building artificial intelligence for the enterprise.

SpaceX estimates that its total addressable market - a closely watched metric - could be as much as $28.5 trillion, according to a S-1 filing reviewed by Reuters. TAM is the maximum revenue a company could generate if it captured every customer in a particular market.

The S-1 regulatory filing, in which companies disclose their financials and key risks before going public, shows that SpaceX expects more than 90% of that market - or $26.5 trillion - could stem from the AI sector. The vast majority of that, $22.7 trillion, could come from AI for businesses.

The company is moving ahead with an IPO expected this summer targeting a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion and seeking to raise about $75 billion, which would make it the largest initial public offering in history.

"We believe we have identified the largest actionable total addressable market in human history," according to the filing.

The new information about where SpaceX sees its biggest market opportunity stands ⁠in stark contrast to how the company currently makes its money.

SpaceX did not reply to a request for comment.

Although a company's TAM is neither a forecast or a valuation, it is an important indicator for investors evaluating a high-growth company's potential.

These ⁠figures are often vast and rarely questioned. When Uber went public in 2019, it claimed a $5.7 trillion market opportunity for its ride-sharing business alone.

The eye-popping opportunity identified by SpaceX, tucked into more than 300 pages detailing its finances, underscores Musk's long-held desire to occupy a central role in the advancement of AI technology.

The AI for enterprise market is currently dominated by Anthropic and OpenAI, AI industry leaders locked in intense competition, and both of which have indicated intentions to go public as early as this year.

In February, SpaceX acquired xAI, an AI research company founded by Musk in early 2023. The filing seen by Reuters shows that xAI remains a nascent and deeply loss-making operation.

The AI unit posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion in 2025, sharply wider than the $1.6 billion loss a year earlier.

Those losses eclipsed the $4.4 billion in operating profit generated by Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet business and its largest revenue engine, which brought in $11.4 billion of its $18.7 billion total revenue last year. Overall, SpaceX lost $4.9 billion.