ITALY PERSPECTIVE

Rome, May 21, 2026. Italy is closely following what could become the largest IPO in global economic history. Panorama, the country's leading weekly, summarizes the stakes in a striking figure: the expected valuation of SpaceX after its entry into the Nasdaq — between $1,750 and $2,000 billion — is roughly equivalent to the entire peninsula's GDP. The comparison says it all about the scale of the operation.

The S-1 prospectus filed with the SEC reveals that Elon Musk's company recorded total revenues of $18.5 billion in 2025, mainly driven by Starlink. The satellite internet division generated $11.4 billion in revenue, up 50%, with an operating profit of $4.4 billion, up 120%. This financial engine justifies the ambition of a $75 billion fundraising target, expected by mid-June — which would surpass the IPO of Aramco, currently the absolute record.

But Italian press does not ignore the gray areas. SpaceX's net results show a deficit of $4.94 billion for the entire 2025, mainly due to massive investments in artificial intelligence. The AI division closed the year with a loss of $6.4 billion on a revenue of $3.2 billion. And the first quarter of 2026 does not show any improvement: SpaceX lost $4.28 billion in just three months, a level close to the red of all 2025.

To mitigate these losses, SpaceX has concluded a major agreement with Anthropic — a direct competitor of OpenAI in the language model race. The contract provides that this AI company will pay $1.25 billion per month to SpaceX until May 2029, in exchange for additional computing capacity in the group's data centers. This recurring income is now a pillar of the financial equation presented to future shareholders.

The governance structure also catches the attention of Italian commentators. Elon Musk will retain all his functions — CEO, technical director, and chairman of the board — after the listing. More significant still: investors will acquire Class A shares (one vote per share), while Musk will hold Class B shares conferring ten votes each. This mechanism guarantees him 85.1% of voting rights, thus shielding any strategic decision from shareholder contestation. Goldman Sachs has been designated as the lead manager of the placement consortium, beating Morgan Stanley.