Elon Musk Says The Spacex Ipo Is About ‘taking The Fiction Out Of Science Fiction’

The post Elon Musk Says the SpaceX IPO Is About ‘Taking the Fiction Out of Science Fiction’ appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

Elon Musk sat for a CNBC segment last week ahead of the largest IPO in history, and he did something a little odd for someone about to ask public markets for close to $75 billion. He talked about science fiction novels.

The improbable origin in an El Segundo warehouse

Musk told CNBC he gave SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) “less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all” when he started it, and figured “we should give it a try because if we don’t… we will never be a truly spacefaring civilization.” He credited COO Gwynne Shotwell as an early partner and recalled the company’s first home, a warehouse in El Segundo. “SpaceX was less than 10 people back then. We didn’t even have office furniture,” he said earlier this month.

SpaceX has raised over $9 billion of equity capital since its 2002 founding to fund Space and Connectivity. The Space segment became Adjusted EBITDA positive on a sustained basis in 2018, and Connectivity got there in 2023. From that warehouse to over 9,600 Starlink satellites in Low-Earth Orbit serving 164 countries is the operational base public buyers are being asked to underwrite.

Taking the fiction out of science fiction

“That’s what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction and create an exciting, inspiring future for everyone,” Musk told CNBC. He acknowledged that Earth’s problems still deserve attention while arguing that inspiring visions of the future are necessary alongside that work.

The framing is consistent with his recent posts. Musk has been talking up a “major base on the Moon” and arguing humanity must secure “the long-term future of consciousness, both on Earth and other heavenly bodies” against meteor strikes and nuclear war. Whether mission talk justifies the valuation is the question buyers actually have to answer.

Democratizing the trip to the Moon and Mars

Musk also pushed the democratization angle on CNBC, saying SpaceX wants to fly “anyone” to the Moon, Mars, and eventually beyond. The IPO itself follows similar logic at the cap table. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is leading a nationwide pitch to thousands of the bank’s wealthiest private-banking clients, which counts as democratization only if you squint, while retail access runs through Morgan Stanley’s retail allocation role alongside Goldman Sachs as lead-left and JPMorgan and Bank of America rounding out the syndicate.

Then there are the ETFs. ARK Space & Defense Innovation, Procure Space, and Tema Space Innovators are positioned to add SPCX exposure quickly once shares trade on NASDAQ. The plumbing for “anyone” to own a piece is being laid in real time.

What mission framing means for IPO buyers

SpaceX generated $18.67 billion in 2025 revenue with a loss from operations of $(2.59) billion and Adjusted EBITDA of $6.58 billion, per the S-1 on file with the SEC. The first quarter of 2026 showed $4.69 billion of revenue against a $1.94 billion loss from operations and $1.13 billion in Adjusted EBITDA. The recent xAI acquisition added both compute ambition and cash burn to that mix.

Skeptics are loud. Michael Burry compares the SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic frenzy to the dot-com bubble. Former Lehman trader Larry McDonald calls the valuations “astronomically unrealistic” and warns rapid index inclusion could rope passive retirement money into the trade at the top. NYU’s Scott Galloway flags the “supply flood” risk as Anthropic and OpenAI line up behind SpaceX, suggesting one of these debuts could give back 80%.

Buyers of SPCX would be funding a thesis that orbital data centers, millions of AI compute satellites deployable as early as 2028, Starship reusability, and cellphone-direct Starlink can all compound into something that justifies the price.

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