SpaceX confidential IPO planned to supercharge $15 billion Starship program
SpaceX is gearing up for a confidential IPO registration, with cash set to supercharge its Starship rocket program.
The company has already poured more than $15 billion into Starship, far more than what went into Falcon 9, and Elon Musk is betting big on this next-gen rocket to launch bigger batches of Starlink satellites and send humans to the moon and Mars.
SpaceX targets H2 2026 Starship launches
By the second half of 2026, SpaceX wants Starship launching new V3 Starlink satellites and even artificial intelligence computing satellites aimed at cutting earth's energy use.
There are still some tough engineering hurdles, like in-orbit refueling and reusable heat shields, but SpaceX isn't slowing down.
With $3 billion in 2025 research-and-development spending for its space segment and a key test flight coming up (including upgrades for NASA's Artemis moon mission), the company is all-in on making fully reusable rockets a reality.