SpaceX’s S-1 filing went public today. For the first time in 24 years, we can see the actual numbers behind one of the most important companies in the space sector.
- $18.7 billion in revenue last year.
- 10.3 million Starlink subscribers across 164 countries.
- A targeted valuation of $1.75 trillion.
- A planned raise of up to $80 billion – which would make it the largest IPO in history, more than doubling Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record.
The headline most people will see is that this IPO could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. He owns approximately 42% of SpaceX, and at a $1.75 trillion valuation, his stake alone would be worth over $700 billion – pushing his total net worth past the trillion-dollar mark when combined with his Tesla holdings. It’s the kind of number that’s easy to scroll past as spectacle.
But look at what it actually represents. A space company – a company that builds rockets and runs a satellite internet network – is about to become one of the most valuable public companies on Earth. That says something about where this industry is heading and what it’s worth.
Every founder in the sector is watching, every investor is recalculating what a space company can become, and every engineer is rethinking what it means to hold equity in a company building the infrastructure of the space economy.
The trillionaire headline is sensational – the signal underneath it is not. The space sector just proved it can produce wealth at a scale that was previously reserved for software and oil. That changes how capital flows into the sector, how companies are valued, and how aggressively they hire to capture the opportunity.
The financial story will dominate the headlines, but the talent story is the one that will reshape the space sector for the next two years.
What the Numbers Tell Us
The S-1 reveals a company that’s really three businesses under one roof.
Starlink is the money machine.
$11.4 billion in revenue last year, $1.2 billion in profit last quarter alone. 10.3 million subscribers, up from 5 million just twelve months ago. This is the business that justifies the valuation and funds everything else.
The space division
Launches, Starship, crew missions – generated $4.1 billion in revenue last year but lost $657 million. Starship is the long-term bet: designed to put 100+ metric tons in orbit, it launched its V3 variant for the first time on May 19, and it’s the vehicle NASA is counting on for Artemis lunar landings.
The AI segment
xAI and X (formerly Twitter) – is burning cash at an extraordinary rate. $7.7 billion in capital expenditure in Q1 2026 alone, most of it going toward GPU clusters, data centers, and infrastructure. SpaceX has said it plans to deploy data centers in space as early as 2028.
Three businesses: all of them hiring, all of them competing for engineers with slightly different but overlapping skillsets.
The Liquidity Event
SpaceX employs more than 13,000 people. Many hold equity that until now has been valuable on paper but not accessible as cash. The company ran periodic tender offers – most recently at $421 per share in late 2025 – but those were limited in scope.
An IPO changes that completely.
Once shares trade publicly on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, every employee with vested equity can sell. For engineers who joined five or more years ago, when SpaceX’s valuation was a fraction of $1.75 trillion, that could be a life-changing amount of money.
And when engineers have financial security, their career thinking changes.
What Happens Next
The pattern from previous large tech IPOs is well-documented. After a major liquidity event (when equity becomes cash), a portion of the workforce starts looking at what else is out there. Not everyone though, as SpaceX’s mission is unusually compelling, and many will stay regardless. But a meaningful percentage will, for the first time, be in a position to take career risks they couldn’t afford before.
Some employees will leave to start companies.
SpaceX alumni have already founded dozens of space startups – Relativity Space, Impulse Space, Varda, Stoke Space, and many others. An IPO gives more people the financial runway to do the same.
Some will move to smaller companies where they can own more.
A principal engineer who’s been one contributor on a massive program might be drawn to a Series A company where they can lead the whole thing.
Some employees will take a break.
After years at one of the most demanding workplaces in aerospace, a subset will step away for six to twelve months. When they come back – and most do – they’ll re-enter the market with SpaceX on their resume and a clear sense of what they want next.
Why This Matters to Every Other Space Company
SpaceX is the sector’s primary talent development engine. Launch, satellite operations, human spaceflight, and now AI infrastructure – the breadth of experience a SpaceX engineer picks up in three to five years is hard to match anywhere else.
That makes SpaceX alumni the most sought-after candidate pool in commercial space. Every growth-stage company wants them, but few can compete on compensation, mission scope, or brand.
But the IPO changes the dynamic in a way that favors smaller companies.
Before the IPO, a SpaceX engineer considering a move had to weigh the cost of leaving before their equity was liquid. That calculation kept a lot of people in place even when they were interested in other things. After the IPO, that anchor goes away, the equity is monetized, and the decision becomes about what they want to do, not what they can afford to do.
For companies that have been trying to recruit from SpaceX and getting nowhere, the six to twelve months after the IPO may be the best window in years.
What We’re Seeing at EVONA
The SpaceX IPO isn’t happening in isolation. It’s one data point in a sector that has seen one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen.
The funding that’s entered the sector – Vast’s $500M, Sierra Space’s $550M, the Space Force budget doubling to $71.2 billion, Starship V3 proving out the most capable rocket ever built – is translating directly into hiring urgency. Companies in the US and across the world are coming to us to grow their teams across all departments.
The excitement for the industry is growing, but so is the competition for talent, and we’re seeing that firsthand. When multiple well-funded companies are all hiring for similar roles at the same time, the candidates have options they didn’t have 12 months ago. The companies that move fast, pay better, and tell a clear story about why someone should join are the ones closing. The ones still operating at previous speeds are losing people to competitors who figured it out.
The SpaceX IPO will accelerate all of this. More engineers with options, more financial freedom to take risks, and more movement in a market that’s already the most active we’ve seen.
What SpaceX Alumni Want
When SpaceX engineers do enter the market, their priorities tend to cluster around a few things.
Ownership.
At SpaceX, you contribute to enormous programs but rarely own one end to end. The engineers who leave want to lead a mission, build a team, or define a technical direction.
Pace with purpose.
They’re used to moving fast and they don’t want to slow down. But they want the speed pointed at something they feel personally invested in.
Equity that could mean something again.
Having been through one liquidity event, they understand what early equity can be worth. A Series A company with a credible growth path is offering something SpaceX can’t — the chance to do it again, earlier.
A different kind of challenge.
Building a spacecraft from scratch at a 50-person company is a fundamentally different problem than optimizing a subsystem on the 300th Falcon 9 mission. For engineers who want to stretch, that’s compelling.
How Space Companies Can Prepare for the SpaceX IPO Talent Window
If you’ve been watching SpaceX thinking “we’ll never compete for those people,” the IPO may change that. But only if you’re ready.
Build relationships now.
The engineers who leave post-IPO won’t be browsing job boards. They’ll go to companies they’ve already heard of, people they’ve already talked to, and opportunities already on their radar. If your first outreach is in August, you’re late.
Know what you offer that SpaceX doesn’t.
You can’t compete on brand or scale. You can compete on ownership, trajectory, flexibility, and the chance to be early at something meaningful. Be specific about what that looks like.
Move fast.
SpaceX engineers approach career decisions the same way they approach engineering problems — clear framework, defined criteria, compressed timeline. If your process takes eight weeks, they’ll have accepted somewhere else.
The Bigger Picture
The SpaceX IPO is a once-in-a-generation event for the space sector. It will create wealth, create movement, and create opportunity – for the engineers who cash out and for the companies ready to receive them.
The talent effect won’t be immediate or uniform. But over the next six to eighteen months, the space sector’s talent market will be more fluid than it’s been at any point in the commercial era. The companies that prepare now will build the next generation of teams from the strongest talent pool the sector has ever produced.