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On some level, that\u2019s expected: Elon Musk (the world\u2019s richest person) and his businesses have long been their own landscape of lightning rods. But SpaceX has always especially captured imaginations. The company\u2019s been around since 2002 and for decades has been revamping the once-impenetrable space economy. And the headlines have always been evocative: Reusable rockets! Colonies on Mars! Starlink everywhere!\u00a0<\/p>\n
But SpaceX itself is also, let\u2019s remember, a Frankensteined company in its own right: Rockets may be the headline, but SpaceX is also comprised of its massive Starlink business, the artist formerly known as Twitter, Musk\u2019s AI outfit xAI, and perhaps eventually even AI coding mega-unicorn Cursor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what most stood out to me as I combed through the go-public filing the first time.<\/p>\n
Kardashev Type II civilization\u2026<\/strong> This S-1 has a pretty legendary glossary of terms. Consider: Kardashev Type II, which \u201crefers to a civilization that harnesses the full energy output of its local star, like our Sun, to power unprecedented growth and sustain the civilization\u2019s existence.\u201d Or: \u201clunar mass driver,\u201d which is \u201ca launch system that we intend to build on the Moon\u2019s surface that will be designed to use electromagnetic acceleration to propel payloads into space without the use of rockets.\u201d I\u2019m not made of stone, and that\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n Twitter isn\u2019t exactly crushing it\u2026 <\/strong>Apologies, X. The social media platform, which Musk dramatically acquired in 2022 for $44 billion, saw its advertising revenue decline by $595 million, as its revenue for 2024 dropped by 11.5%. The filing is clear: \u201cThe decrease in advertising revenue was due to the loss of advertising partners for X.\u201d But, on the bright side, there was an increase in subscription revenue of $157 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cursor check\u2026 <\/strong>SpaceX\u2019s prospective $60 billion acquisition of embattled AI coding juggernaut Cursor is not guaranteed, but clearly plays a key role in the story SpaceX is telling the public markets about its place in the AI landscape. We also got a sneak peek into Cursor, which at the end of its fiscal year had $3.1 billion in total assets\u2014$2.7 billion in cash and about $550 million in liabilities. Cursor also would get a $1.5 billion termination fee, should the deal go bust.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is still Musk\u2019s show\u2026 <\/strong>Musk currently has 85% voting power thanks to Class B shares, and will retain his iron grip post-IPO. Here\u2019s the exact language, if that\u2019s your thing: \u201cMr. Musk will have the power to control the outcome of matters requiring shareholder approval, including election of all our directors.\u201d Translation: Elon\u2019s in charge. There are examples of other \u201ccontrolled\u201d companies in the public markets, like Meta.\u00a0<\/p>\n Money moves\u2026<\/strong> There\u2019s really so much here. Some quick facts to ruminate on: Starlink is financially bolstering the business. Anthropic is apparently paying SpaceX a whopping $15 billion a year. (This is oddly delicious: Musk once called Anthropic \u201cevil.\u201d) And Musk\u2019s pay package is not only tied to stock price, but to the establishment of a colony on Mars, with a minimum of one million people.<\/p>\n This looks to be, far and away, the largest IPO ever (if reports are true). The valuation math is extremely<\/em> aggressive: we\u2019re talking about a valuation that\u2019ll supposedly be as high as $2 trillion, for a money-guzzling business that generated about $18.7 billion in 2025 revenue. That\u2019s a tough sell, at least to me. But it\u2019s possible\u2014even likely\u2014the red flags won\u2019t matter and demand will soar. So, caveat emptor.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s all prepare for liftoff.<\/p>\n See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n Allie Garfinkle Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.<\/p>\n Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter<\/em>.<\/em> Subscribe here.<\/p>\n – <\/span>Socket<\/b>, a San Francisco-based software supply chain security platform, raised $60 million in Series C funding. <\/span>Thrive Capital<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>a16z<\/b>, <\/span>Abstract<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, and <\/span>Capital<\/b> One<\/b> Ventures<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>CircuitHub<\/b>, a South Deerfield, Mass. and Petersfield, U.K.-based developer of automated factories for on-demand electronics manufacturing, raised $28 million in Series A funding. <\/span>Plural<\/b> led the round.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Stilta<\/b>, a Stockholm, Sweden-based agentic AI company for patient litigation and IP analysis, raised $10.5 million in seed funding. <\/span>a16z<\/b> led the round and was joined by<\/span> Y Combinator <\/b>and others.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Tribal<\/b>, a New York City-based developer of context-aware AI agents for enterprise systems, raised $10 million in seed funding. <\/span>Team8<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>DYDX Capital<\/b> and angel investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Benji<\/b>, a Chicago, Ill. and New York City-based loyalty partnership platform, raised $6.3 million in seed funding. <\/span>Preface<\/b> Ventures<\/b> and <\/span>Atinc<\/b> led the round and were joined by <\/span>Great<\/b> North<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>M25<\/b>, and <\/span>Hyde Park Ventures<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>CVRD<\/b> Health<\/b>, a McLean, Va.-based employee benefits platform, raised $5 million in seed funding. <\/span>Upfront<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Distribution<\/b> Ventures<\/b> and <\/span>Waterline<\/b> Ventures<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>StitcherAI<\/b>, a Seattle, Wash.-based platform designed to embed financial context in IT and AI investment decisions, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding. <\/span>Founders<\/b> Co-op<\/b> led the round.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>GHO<\/b> Capital<\/b>, a London, U.K.-based health care investor, and <\/span>CBC<\/b> Group<\/b>, a Singapore-based health care-focused asset manager, agreed to merge.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>PestCo<\/b> Holdings<\/b>, a portfolio company of <\/span>Thompson<\/b> Street<\/b> Capital<\/b> Partners<\/b>, acquired <\/span>University Termite & Pest Control<\/b>, a Tucson, Ariz.-based pest control company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Scholl\u2019s<\/b> Wellness<\/b> Company<\/b>, a portfolio company of <\/span>Yellow<\/b> Wood<\/b> Partners<\/b>, acquired <\/span>VKTRY<\/b>, a Milford, Conn.-based insole company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Southern<\/b> Home<\/b> Services<\/b>, a portfolio company of <\/span>Gryphon<\/b> Investors<\/b>, acquired <\/span>Blazer<\/b> Heating, Air & Plumbing<\/b>, a Mechanicsville, Va.-based HVAC and plumbing services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Lincoln International<\/b>, a Chicago, Ill.-based investment banking advisory firm, raised $421 million in an offering of 21 million shares priced at $20 on the New York Stock Exchange.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Shamrock<\/b> Capital<\/b>, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based investment firm, raised $813 million in funding focused on media, entertainment, communications, and related sectors.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #SpaceXs #IPO #filing #full #surprises<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On some level, that\u2019s expected: Elon Musk (the world\u2019s richest person) and his businesses have long been their own landscape of lightning rods. But SpaceX has always especially captured imaginations.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[743,1844,2984,2040,960,1843,5557,5558,963,568],"class_list":["post-3338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-elon-musk","tag-filing","tag-full","tag-ipo","tag-private-equity","tag-spacex","tag-spacexs","tag-surprises","tag-term-sheet","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
X:<\/strong> @agarfinks
Email:<\/strong> alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com<\/p>\nVENTURE CAPITAL<\/h3>\n
PRIVATE EQUITY<\/h3>\n
IPOS<\/h3>\n
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS<\/h3>\n