- SpaceX could go public at a roughly $2 trillion valuation despite losing billions and having no earnings
- The price implies investors are paying over 100 times revenue, far above even the most expensive public tech stocks
- A viral meme about throwing away The Intelligent Investor highlights how this contradicts traditional value investing principles
- Buying SpaceX at this level is seen less as investing in fundamentals and more as betting on a long-term story
How to lose money and dissuade people
Private American aerospace / AI company SpaceX is once again at the centre of Wall Street speculation, this time not for rockets or satellites, but for what could become one of the largest initial public offerings in history.
Market chatter suggests the company could debut at a valuation approaching US$2 trillion, a figure that would instantly place it among the most valuable companies ever listed.
But beneath the excitement, a quieter debate is unfolding—one that pits modern growth narratives against a century-old investing philosophy pioneered by Benjamin Graham, the mentor of Warren Buffett.
This article is a journalistic opinion piece that has been written based on independent research. It is intended to inform investors and should not be taken as a recommendation or financial advice.
A record valuation meets mounting losses
On the surface, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (aka SpaceX) growth story is part compelling, part embarrassing. Revenue reportedly reached US$18.7 billion last year, up 33 per cent year-over-year, driven largely by its Starlink satellite internet division and government launch contracts.
Yet the company’s bottom line tells a different story.
SpaceX lost nearly US$5 billion in 2025, and early figures suggest an additional US$4 billion loss in the first quarter of 2026 alone. A significant portion of those losses is tied to investments in affiliated ventures like xAI, which alone burned US$6.4 billion over the past year.
Despite these losses, the rumoured IPO valuation implies investors would be paying roughly 107 times revenue—a multiple far exceeding even the most expensive public tech companies today. For comparison, Palantir, often cited as one of the priciest stocks in the S&P 500, trades at roughly 60 times revenue.
What’s more notable: SpaceX currently has no earnings, meaning traditional valuation metrics like the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio don’t exist.
“Throwing the book away”
That disconnect has brought attention to a popular meme among investors: a person tossing a copy of The Intelligent Investor—Benjamin Graham’s seminal investing text—into the trash.
The joke resonates because Graham’s philosophy is grounded in discipline. He argued that a stock is not just a ticker symbol or a story, but a claim on a real business, and that investors should base decisions on fundamentals—earnings, cash flow, and intrinsic value.
Central to his framework is the “margin of safety”—the idea that investors should only buy when a stock is clearly undervalued relative to its true worth.
At a US$2 trillion valuation with no earnings, critics argue SpaceX represents the opposite approach: a bet not on present fundamentals, but on a future that may or may not materialize.
The story vs. the spreadsheet
SpaceX itself leans heavily into that future. Company materials reportedly describe its opportunity as the “largest actionable total addressable market in human history,” estimating roughly US$28.5 trillion in potential value from space infrastructure, global internet coverage, and even off-world economies.
That vision includes everything from lunar logistics to Mars colonization—markets that, at least for now, remain largely theoretical.
But for traditional investors, the numbers raise questions: how much of that future can realistically be captured—and how soon?
A late arrival to public markets
Adding to the unusual nature of the IPO is SpaceX’s longevity as a private company. Founded in 2002, it has remained private for 24 years, far longer than typical high-growth tech firms.
During that time, early investors—including venture capital firms and private equity funds—have already captured much of the upside. By the time SpaceX files its S-1 registration with the SEC, it will be offering the public its first detailed look at financials, risks, contracts, and ownership structure.
That filing could prove pivotal.
S-1 documents often reveal surprises—both positive and negative—especially for mature private firms. For retail investors, it will be the first opportunity to assess whether the valuation aligns with underlying reality.
Retail investors in focus
Unlike most IPOs, which are heavily dominated by institutional investors, SpaceX’s offering is expected to generate huge retail participation.
Part of the appeal is accessibility: until now, ordinary investors have been unable to buy shares in one of the world’s most talked-about companies. The IPO changes that overnight.
But it also raises concerns about timing.
A test of modern markets
From a string of delays, to the launch of the largest and most powerful rocket in history, the story of SpaceX’s IPO may ultimately come down to a broader question: are markets still governed by fundamentals, or increasingly driven by narrative?
The viral meme of discarding The Intelligent Investor captures that tension perfectly. It reflects a market willing, at least in some cases, to set aside traditional valuation principles in favour of long-term vision.
For some, that’s justified. Transformational companies often look expensive before they dominate entire industries.
For others, it’s a warning sign.
As Graham himself famously wrote, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”
If SpaceX does go public at a US$2 trillion valuation, investors may soon find out which of those forces matters more.
Failure to launch?
For now, the takeaway is simple:
Buying SpaceX—if and when it goes public—is less about what the company is today, and more about what investors believe it could become.
Or, as the meme suggests, it may be one of the clearest examples yet of a market choosing story over fundamentals.
Join the discussion: Find out what the Bullboards are saying about SpaceX and check out Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.