Brave new world: SpaceX is now the most expensive stock on the planet

June 16, 2026 — 10:22am

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Should SpaceX be valued at more than 10 times that of the other US mega-companies that populate the small universe of companies with a market capitalisation of more than $US1 trillion?

That is a question posed by the extraordinary debut of Elon Musk’s new listing.

Already priced at what appeared a very expensive $US1.75 trillion ($2.48 trillion) in its prospectus, in its first two days of trading SpaceX’s market value has soared 42 per cent. The company is now valued at $US2.52 trillion, making it the sixth most valuable company in the world.

The ten other companies with a market capitalisation above $US1 trillion trade on an average price-to-sales ratio of 11.2 times. SpaceX’s ratio is a mind-boggling 134 times.

Those other companies, it should also be noted, are all profitable.

Amazon, with a market cap of $US2.65 trillion and therefore with a value only slightly higher than SpaceX’s, made $US78 billion in profit last year. The company with the highest price-to-sales ratio among the world’s top 10 companies, Broadcom, with a ratio of almost 25, had earnings of $US64 billion.

SpaceX had net income of $US791 million last year – but lost $US4.3 billion (on sales of $US4.7 billion) in the first quarter of this year after it merged with Musk’s xAI and its spending on artificial intelligence ramped up.

Like most of the AI hyperscalers, SpaceX’s trajectory for the next few years – or potentially a lot more than a few years – will be ever-increasing investment in AI, and ever-swelling AI-related losses. Its listing was motivated by a desire to get continuing and large-scale access to equity to fund that spending and the losses.

Initially, at least, it has succeeded. By selling less........

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