MW Musk suggests this underrated AI business could be a big driver of SpaceX's valuation
By William Gavin
With SpaceX's valuation expected to skyrocket, its CEO largely credits satellites, rocket launches - and the company's plan to solve a major AI-industry problem
Elon Musk's SpaceX is reportedly exploring going public and seeking an $800 valuation through a tender offer.
SpaceX could double its valuation from where it stood earlier this year, and CEO Elon Musk says a few things could drive his aerospace company - including one factor that's more under the radar.
Earlier this year, SpaceX's worth was pegged at around $400 billion, following a tender offer that allowed investors and employees to sell their shares. Now, it's aiming for an $800 billion valuation through a new secondary sale, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On Saturday, Musk said in a post on X, which he owns, that claims SpaceX is "raising money at $800B" is not accurate, before adding that the company offers stock buybacks twice a year to "provide liquidity for employees and investors." Such rounds typically do not directly raise capital for a startup, but they can impact a company's valuation.
"Valuation increments are a function of progress with Starship and Starlink and securing global direct-to-cell spectrum that greatly increases our addressable market," Musk added.
While SpaceX is best known for rocket launches, the company also houses Starlink, a satellite-internet business with at least 8 million global subscribers. "Commercial Starlink is by far our largest contributor to revenue," Musk said Saturday.
The business accounted for about 63% of SpaceX's $13.1 billion in revenue last year, according to an estimate from Payload, a space-industry publication.
SpaceX has agreed to buy almost $20 billion worth of spectrum from EchoStar $(SATS)$, which Musk said will "greatly" increase Starlink's addressable market. The company works with several industry players, including T-Mobile US $(TMUS)$, to provide direct-to-cell services across over a dozen countries.
See More: AST SpaceMobile and Starlink may prove friend, not foe, to these wireless stocks
But Musk has also expressed some willingness to go it alone. In September, he said "one of the options" for SpaceX is to establish an independent mobile carrier to directly compete with companies like Verizon Communications $(VZ)$. The company has also filed a trademark application for Starlink Mobile.
As for the better-known portion of SpaceX's business, the company conducts the vast majority of global rocket launches. What's driving enthusiasm on that end is Starship, a 404-foot reusable rocket that is still being tested, Musk said.
See More: Starship just completed its last flight of 2025. What comes next for Musk's SpaceX.
The company is working on its third version of Starship, which it expects to start testing during the first quarter of 2026. SpaceX launched Starship five times this year, two of which were successful. In 2026, it plans to attempt several additional tests and send an uncrewed Starship to Mars.
That would go a long way toward achieving Musk's dream of eventually colonizing Mars. SpaceX said cargo flights to Mars are expected to begin in 2030 at a rate of $100 million per metric ton of payload.
But perhaps the factor that's "most significant by far" for SpaceX's valuation is something that's still more conceptual. Musk teased that there was something even more consequential to SpaceX's worth than those two revenue-generating business areas, though he didn't explicitly name it.
However, he later replied to tech investor Cathie Wood on X, telling her that her firm's model, which calls for a $2.5 trillion valuation for SpaceX by 2030, was incomplete.
"A major additional factor should be considered," Musk wrote, before describing space-based data centers, which some tech leaders say could provide cheap, reliable power as the artificial-intelligence boom drives up energy usage.
According to Musk, launching additional satellites will be the fastest way to scale and provide additional energy within the next four years. In the past, Musk has described a plan to operate his own data centers in space by "scaling up" SpaceX's next line of Starlink satellites.
He's not the only one exploring that technology. Other companies, including Google-parent Alphabet $(GOOGL)$ and the Nvidia (NVDA)-backed startup Starcloud, are also working on space-based data centers.
Go Deeper: Why Musk and other tech leaders think outer space can help solve one of AI's biggest challenges
SpaceX is also eyeing a potential initial public offering, which it could pursue as soon as the second half of next year, the Information reported. Although SpaceX has considered spinning off Starlink into a separate public business since at least 2020, its potential IPO would involve the entire company.
A representative for SpaceX did not immediately return a request for comment.
-William Gavin
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December 08, 2025 12:33 ET (17:33 GMT)
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