SpaceX shares jumped 20% on Friday as the company started trading in the largest IPO ever. Elon Musk rang the opening bell from Texas, while SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell did the same at the Nasdaq in New York. Below are Musk’s comments on growth plans and details from the company’s prospectus about SpaceX’s financial history.
On a JPMorgan Chase livestream before trading started, Musk said SpaceX has been cash-flow positive since around 2015. He explained that going public now will help raise money for major growth, such as launching over 100,000 communications satellites and building AI data centers in space.
Despite the company’s broad ambitions, Starlink remains the only consistently profitable division within SpaceX today. The company started as a reusable rocket manufacturer, and rockets remain central to its operations, but the satellite internet business has become the enterprise’s financial backbone.
SpaceX grew its business in February 2026 by buying Musk’s AI startup xAI. This deal added xAI’s data centers, Grok AI models, an AI chatbot and image generator called Grok, and the social network X (formerly Twitter) to SpaceX.
The company’s prospectus shows SpaceX has built up a $41.3 billion deficit since it was founded in 2002. The 20% gain on the first day matches what analysts call a healthy result for such a large IPO. It is not so high that it suggests mispricing, but not so low that it lacks momentum.
After Friday’s debut, Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire based on the value of his shares in SpaceX and Tesla.
