A Sneak Peek Into the Finances of Elon Musk’s SpaceX
In 2002, Elon Musk launched SpaceX — a groundbreaking company designed to reduce the cost of space travel, create commercial spaceflight, and develop a sustainable colony on Mars. Since its inception, SpaceX has been a progressive force in the aerospace industry and continues to be known for innovative advancements such as Starlink, the development of the Falcon 9 rocket — a reusable rocket which has greatly reduced the price tag of space launches — and is the only private company to have returned a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.
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While SpaceX maintains ambitious goals and impressive historic breakthroughs, not much is always known about the company’s finances. The Wall Street Journal, however, previously reviewed financial documents that give a rare look into the secretive SpaceX’s revenue and here’s what we know.
Some Investors Don’t Know the Losses or Gains of the Company
According to the WSJ, not everyone who has invested in SpaceX knows the losses or profits of the company. “Some people with stakes in SpaceX have no idea how much money the company makes or loses. Many SpaceX investors view their holdings as a long-term bet and say they aren’t concerned about seeing results.”
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SpaceX Earned a Profit in 2023
For the first quarter of 2023, the WSJ reported that the company” generated $55 million in profit on $1.5 billion in revenue.” The article stated, “The slim earnings came after two years of significant but narrowing losses at SpaceX, which is pouring money into a rocket that remains unproven and poses difficult technical challenges.”
Closing out 2023, The Motley Fool (via Yahoo! Finance) indicated that SpaceX “probably nearly doubled its revenue to $8.7 billion in 2023, and generated ‘significant’ profits.” However, The Motley Fool’s source — Payload — did not provide a firm number, though The Motley Fool reported Bloomberg as indicating “late last year [2023] that profits were on track to reach $3 billion, ‘adjusted’ to exclude one-time items.”
SpaceX Lost Millions in 2022
According to the documents the WSJ reviewed: “The company reported about $5.2 billion in total expenses for 2022, up from $3.3 billion the year earlier, the documents show. Revenue doubled to $4.6 billion, helping the company reduce its loss last year to $559 million from $968 million.”
The Company Spent Billions in 2021
SpaceX spends a significant amount of money on research and property. “During 2021 and last year, the company spent a total of $5.4 billion on purchases of property and equipment and incurred significant research and development costs,” according to the WSJ. “Some portion of that spending is tied to its program developing Starship, a powerful rocket that poses immense hurdles for SpaceX. Costs for Starship weren’t specified in the documents.”
Other Ways SpaceX Spends Money
In addition to research and development, The WSJ reported SpaceX “spent $153 million to buy SpaceX shares” earlier in 2023, “during one of its liquidity events, where current and former employees can potentially cash out their stock in the company.” The article also stated: “SpaceX also said it paid $524 million, mostly in stock, in a rare deal to acquire a satellite-communications company called Swarm Technologies in 2021.”
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