SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., trading as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and provider of space transportation, telecommunications and artificial intelligence services, headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. It was incorporated on March 14, 2002 in El Segundo, California by Elon Musk, with stated goals of reducing spaceflight costs, improving reliability of access to outer space and enabling the colonization of Mars.

The company reports three primary segments. The Space segment develops and flies the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Starship launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft, and conducts more orbital launches annually than any other launch provider, including national programs. The Connectivity segment operates the Starlink satellite constellation, which also underpins the Starshield military product line. The AI segment is conducted through the wholly owned subsidiary SpaceXAI, which develops the Grok family of models and related products, operates the social network X, and builds and runs large-scale data centers. Subsidiaries listed include SpaceXAI, Starlink and Cursor. Key people are Elon Musk (CEO, chairman and CTO) and Gwynne Shotwell (president and COO); products include launch vehicles, Dragon capsules and Starshield.

SpaceX is credited with advances in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. Its largest customers include NASA, the United States Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. As of December 31, 2025 the company reported revenue of $18.7 billion, an operating loss of $2.6 billion, a net loss of $4.9 billion, total assets of $92.1 billion and total equity of $2.6 billion.

Founding story

After being ousted as CEO of PayPal in late 2000, Elon Musk became interested in space exploration, funding private space projects and pledging $100,000 to the Mars Society, whose board he briefly joined. In August 2001 he presented Mars Oasis at the Mars Society convention, a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. Musk travelled to Russia twice, in October 2001 and February 2002 (the second trip with Michael D. Griffin), seeking a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile or Dnepr launch vehicle, but the missiles were quoted at roughly $8 million each and negotiations failed. Abandoning Mars Oasis, Musk concluded that low launch cost was the crucial requirement and decided to build rockets himself, applying vertical integration, inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components and iterative development. In early 2002 he met aerospace engineers near Los Angeles International Airport and invited five to join: Michael Griffin, Jim Cantrell, John Garvey, Tom Mueller and Chris Thompson; Mueller and Thompson became the first and second employees. Musk committed roughly half of the $180 million he received from PayPal stock. Filings show incorporation on March 14, 2002, though sources cite de facto founding dates of May 6 or around June 2002. Forbes reports Musk recruited Mueller, then a TRW engineer active in the Reaction Research Society, in January 2002; the Merlin engine concept was conceived at Mueller's house shortly afterward and Mueller signed on as employee No. 1 in April 2002.

Business model

SpaceX earns revenue from orbital launch services on Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Starship, from Dragon cargo and crew missions, from government contracts with customers including NASA, the U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office, from Starlink satellite internet subscriptions and the Starshield military variant, and from AI activities through SpaceXAI, including renting out large-scale GPU computing capacity to external customers such as Anthropic and Google and selling Grok and Cursor software subscriptions.

Reported revenue of $18.7 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025, with an operating loss of $2.6 billion and a net loss of $4.9 billion. Starlink is described as generating the bulk of the company's income; secondary sources cite estimated 2023 revenue of about $8.7 billion, a Starlink revenue projection of $6.6 billion for 2024, and $55 million in profit on $1.5 billion revenue in Q1 2023.

Traction

Falcon 9 launches averaged approximately three missions per week as of May 2026, and Falcon boosters had completed nearly 650 landings and reflights. The company launched 165 rockets in 2025. Starlink had 4.5 million subscribers according to a secondary funding-focused source. Employee count is listed at 22,000 for 2026, up from a reported staff of about 10,000 in 2023. Forbes reports a valuation of $800 billion prior to the IPO, and secondary sources cite valuations of $350 billion as of December 2024, $137 billion in January 2023, $127 billion in 2022, $100.3 billion in October 2021, $33.3 billion in May 2019, about $12 billion in 2015 and $1.3 billion in 2012.

Latest developments

In 2026 SpaceX acquired Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, which now operates as the wholly owned subsidiary SpaceXAI, and announced a joint venture with Tesla, Inc. to build Terafab, a large semiconductor fabrication plant. Its initial public offering on June 12, 2026 raised $86 billion and was the largest IPO in history, briefly making Musk the first US-dollar trillionaire. In April 2026 SpaceX and Cursor announced a technology development deal that included an option for SpaceX to acquire Cursor for $60 billion; the acquisition was confirmed in June and closed on August 15, 2026, giving Cursor access to SpaceX's GPU fleet, including the Colossus supercomputer. Cursor contributed to training Grok 4.5 and Grok 4.6, and Grok Bot is bundled into Cursor Ultra and Cursor Premium Teams subscriptions. Separately, TechCrunch reported that Cognition's CEO denied a report that SpaceX had tried to acquire that startup.