SpaceX Draws Retail Buyers Ahead of Friday IPO as Fans Ready $6,500 Bets

Q: Can Starlink's profits sustain the massive cash burn from AI and still fund the colonization of Mars?

No. Starlink is a powerful cash generator, but on current numbers it does not appear able to cover SpaceX’s AI losses and also finance Mars colonization without outside capital. Starlink is the company’s strongest business. In 2025 it produced about $11.4 billion in revenue and roughly $4.4 billion in operating profit, with some estimates putting free cash flow near $3 billion. Subscriber growth has been rapid, and margins have improved as the network scales. That makes Starlink the main source of internally generated cash. But the AI business is consuming cash at a much faster rate. After the xAI tie-up, AI-related spending became the biggest drag on results, with reports of roughly $12.7 billion in AI capex in 2025 and a $2.5 billion operating loss in the first quarter of 2026 alone. SpaceX as a whole posted a net loss of about $4.9 billion in 2025 and another multibillion-dollar loss in early 2026, despite Starlink’s profitability. Mars adds another large bill. Starship, the essential vehicle for any Mars settlement, cost about $3 billion in R&D in 2025 and remains a multibillion-dollar annual program. A self-sustaining Mars colony would require spending far beyond current Starship development. That means Starlink is effectively subsidizing AI and Starship, but not enough to fully fund both. For the model to work, SpaceX likely needs some combination of IPO proceeds, much stronger AI revenue, and major Starship cost reductions through successful reusability and scale.

3 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · Jun 10

$6,500 is what one New York retail investor has set aside to buy SpaceX shares when the company is expected to start trading Friday.
Demand is being fueled by Elon Musk’s track record with Tesla, whose post-2010 IPO surge turned early believers into big winners and built a loyal base of repeat investors.
For those buyers, SpaceX is more than a rocket company: the appeal combines launch services with AI, satellite communications and Musk’s longer-term Mars ambitions.
The frenzy shows how strongly Musk’s personal following could shape early appetite for one of the market’s most anticipated IPOs.