SpaceX Pulled In $85.7 Billion and Its Only Pitch Was 'Trust Us'
SpaceX (SPCX) completed the largest IPO in U.S. history on June 12, 2026, raising $85.7 billion on Nasdaq — yet within 16 trading days the stock had plunged 31% from its all-time high of $225.64, revealing structural vulnerabilities the blockbuster headline numbers barely concealed. Of the company's three business units, only Starlink is profitable, generating $11.4 billion in revenue and $4.4 billion in operating income in 2025, while xAI burned through $6.35 billion in operating losses that same year — compounded by the unprecedented mass departure of all 11 co-founders between February 2025 and March 2026. SpaceX's announcement of a $25 billion inaugural investment-grade bond offering made it unmistakably clear that a meaningful portion of IPO proceeds were earmarked to retire debt accumulated from the xAI merger, triggering a 16.4% single-day collapse. The valuation chasm is equally extreme: Morningstar's fair-value estimate of $63 stands against a Wall Street consensus range of $156–$178, with NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran independently valuing the enterprise at $1.25–$1.3 trillion — still 37% below the current $2.02 trillion market cap. SpaceX is unquestionably the greatest space company in human history, but at 141 times trailing revenue, the stock appears to reflect excessive faith in Starlink's monopoly and unfounded optimism about xAI's potential, priced to perfection at a moment when execution is anything but.