According to data from Dealogic, which conducts research on the capital markets, almost half of companies that have gone public in the last 30 years have seen their value decrease compared to when they listed.
“There is no doubt the valuation is incredibly rich,” Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets research at Mergermarket, said.
He noted that SpaceX was pricing itself compared to its sales at a ratio that is higher than any other major company included in what investors refer to as the “Mag 7” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft and Tesla, another of Musk’s companies.
“But SpaceX is being valued on future earnings and revenue rather than the here and now, so some investors might be willing to overlook that,” Kerr added.
Last year, Space Exploration Technologies – as SpaceX is officially known – brought in $18.6bn (£13.8bn) in revenue but had a net loss of $4.9bn.
In the first three months of this year, it achieved $4.7bn in sales but made a net loss of $4.3bn. Its balance sheet shows it has $102bn in assets, such as rockets and other equipment, but also carries $60.5bn of debt.
Besides space exploration, the company is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), social media, space-based internet services and data centres.
