SpaceX files for IPO. Starlink is why it matters

Last week, SpaceX confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering (IPO), in what is expected to be the largest IPO ever. While the size of the offering is currently undisclosed, the New York Times reported citing a source that owner Elon Musk is looking to raise between $50 billion and $75 billion -- putting the cumulative potential valuation of the rocket company, xAI (which it merged with in February), and Starlink at $2 trillion, up from an earlier valuation of $1.75 trillion.

The paperwork was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week, and according to sources, Musk is looking at a June debut, which is consistent with earlier speculation.

Analysts anticipate the IPO could provide a massive boost to the space industry overall, as shares of AST SpaceMobile, Rocket Lab and several other companies surged over 10% on the news.

Some are likening the event to the moment Netscape -- the dominant web browser in the mid-1990s -- went public. "We think this is a Netscape moment for the space economy, in the same way that prior to Netscape going public in '95, the internet was this thing that academics and government employees used -- it became an institutional-grade asset class after that," Chad Anderson, Space Capital founder and CEO, told Yahoo Finance.

SpaceX's lucrative valuation is fueled largely by the highly profitable satellite communications business of Starlink, which accounts for a majority of its revenue. Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities, told Reuters, "Starlink is the only reason this valuation is defensible...This is going to be the recurring revenue engine."

With over 10 million subscribers globally, and now on track to deliver service to 476, 000 U.S. locations via the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) program, Starlink today accounts for 50% to 80% of SpaceX's total revenue.

An Opensignal report outlines Starlink's continued rise, especially in rural areas, where it is emerging as a formidable challenger to internet service providers (ISPs) that formerly held regional monopolies. According to the research, Starlink is gaining ground by wide margins in rural Australia, where in the last year, one out of five households has switched to Starlink. A similar wave of growth is being seen in Canada.

This helps explain Starlink's record customer growth in 2025. Over the course of the year, the company doubled its customer base, adding nearly 20,000 new users daily between November and December.

A key advantage for Starlink is cheaper subscription costs. In the U.K., it is cheaper than even the lowest-priced plans offered by British Telecom. Adding to that, free kit rentals and reduced hardware costs have driven substantial customer gains across North America, Europe, and Oceania, Opensignal observed.

Another reason is improved Reliability Experience score or the measure of user's experience of network consistency and stability. According to Opensignal data, the scores moved up 30% in Canada and 25% in the U.K. -- a likely result of the recent hardware upgrade made with the deployment of V2 Mini satellites with four times the capacity of V1, taking capacity over 600 Tbps.

The company is now set to disrupt the wireless industry with the new Starlink Mobile, which it positions as "complementary" rather than competitive to terrestrial networks. After launching the complementary emergency direct-to-cell (D2C) texting service with T-Mobile last year, it seems the operator is ready to evolve into a direct D2D provider in its own right.

However, SpaceX's launch business too remains profitable. It reported $8 billion profit in 2025, up 51% from the year before. Regardless, Musk expects the vast majority of its revenue to continue to come from Starlink this year.

The SEC filing is currently in review with regulators. Meanwhile, stoking IPO speculation, Elon Musk has put a new demand on the table: banks, law firms, auditors, and advisors working on the IPO will be required to sign up for Grok, his AI chatbot which is now integrated with SpaceX, the NYT reported.