What Starlink’s Big US Mobile Bundle Deal Could Mean for Upsized $2 Trillion SpaceX IPO

SpaceX recently announced a new promotional deal with US Mobile, offering a series of discounted bundles that combine its Starlink satellite-based Internet service with mobile data plans. The marketing tie-up helps keep the company’s key profit center growing in the lead-up to this year’s expected IPO.

The deals – priced at $47, $77, and $117 per month – combine US Mobile’s base mobile plan with Starlink’s space-based internet at three different service speeds. Starlink is taking a price cut to make the deal, but the company gets access to more potential customers through the partnership.

US Mobile customers can connect to satellite Internet through a regular mobile phone. Of course, for Starlink, the strategic importance is clear: Anyone with a phone can enjoy the benefits of satellite-based internet, even if they already have an existing mobile data plan.

Starlink generates the lion’s share of SpaceX’s profit with high margins. So, every incremental dollar is tremendously lucrative for Starlink.

According to Pitchbook, Starlink sales hit $10.6 billion in 2025, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“EBITDA”) of $5.8 billion, an EBITDA margin of 54%.

The SpaceX subsidiary has shown strong sales growth over the last two years. Starlink’s global customers totaled more than 9 million at the end of last year, with clients in more than 150 countries. Incredibly, it’s also doubled its customer base twice in the last two years.

Strong margins, strong growth – that’s a powerful story for investors in a highly anticipated IPO.

But SpaceX needs the high-margin growth, particularly since it acquired xAI in February. The company xAI – itself a merger of social media site X and the Grok AI company – is spending money quickly, about $7.8 billion in the first three quarters of 2025. Plus, it’s sitting on a ton of debt, at least $17.5 billion. A fast-growing, cash-spinning business helps offset this investment.

It’s all important as CEO Elon Musk tries to launch SpaceX as the largest IPO ever. Musk needs to keep the story on track if he expects to garner the utterly massive valuation the company is targeting.

SpaceX Seeking Record $2 Trillion IPO Valuation

If it seems like SpaceX’s valuation has risen faster than one of its rockets, you’re not wrong. The company is now exploring a $2 trillion market capitalization for its IPO, according to Bloomberg.

That’s just weeks after SpaceX unveiled a $1.75 trillion valuation target. And that was a few months after Musk touted a $1.5 trillion valuation, a figure that seemed laughably high after the company’s valuations in the prior 18 months:

• July 2024: $210 billion

• December 2024: $350 billion

• July 2025: $400 billion

• December 2025: Approximately $800 billion

• February 2026: $1.25 trillion

While the absolute dollar amounts have been increasingly larger, the theme of soaring valuations has been the same story for SpaceX’s valuation over the past two years.

With initial expectations pegging SpaceX’s IPO for June, there’s still plenty of time for Musk to raise the valuation even further. Between now and then, demand can keep rising for what’s already expected to be the largest IPO of all time by total market cap.

So, it doesn’t seem like $2.25 trillion or even $2.5 trillion is ultimately off the table – as long as investors continue to demand access to the IPO. For now, they seem to be buying whatever Musk is selling, and that means the valuations may continue to rise. But Musk is already trying to put unusual conditions on the IPO that make it unfavorable to investors.

Remember, management has said it plans to sell less than 5% of its stock to the public, meaning that it will just increase the price it charges all investors for those limited number of shares.

The SpaceX IPO differs from most IPOs in a key detail – how much individual investors are allowed to purchase. In a typical IPO, retail investors are an afterthought, and they’re offered perhaps 5%-10% of the total shares for purchase.

For the SpaceX IPO, however, initial indications suggest that individuals may have an allocation as high as 30% – helping keep demand high for the offering.

If those massive valuation jumps seem surprising, investors should understand exactly how Elon Musk has helped engineer them and how he’s kept SpaceX at the forefront of investors’ minds. Here are the tricks Musk used to raise SpaceX’s valuation so quickly.

How to Buy SpaceX Stock – And Why It Makes Sense to Be Cautious

With SpaceX likely to offer the public a big slice of the IPO, investors are understandably trying to get a piece of one of 2026’s hottest IPOs.

But investors can already buy the stock of companies that own a stake (or a right to it) in SpaceX:

• EchoStar (SATS), which owns about $28 billion in SpaceX stock.

• Alphabet (GOOGL), which owns about 7.5% of SpaceX.

Those may be more diluted ways to pick up shares of SpaceX before the IPO. But individual investors have at least one other way to buy pre-IPO shares without needing to be an accredited investor. Here are the full details on this alternative route to SpaceX’s pre-IPO stock.

Investors who are considering buying into SpaceX need to carefully consider a few points:

• The breathtaking valuation: At a $1.75 trillion valuation, Bloomberg estimated that SpaceX was priced around 110 times sales. Presumably, a $2 trillion valuation for the stock would price it at 125 times sales. Such a high level is almost unfathomable, and it’s probably the single-largest source of risk for investors. Of course, a first-day “pop” for the stock would make it even more expensive.

• The lock-up rules: According to the Financial Times, insiders are considering how to “do away with rules to prevent insiders [from] cashing out or trading shares, which are typically imposed for 180 days after a company goes public.” Those rules help mitigate the conflict of interest that exists when insiders – who know the company best – decide to sell to outside investors. SpaceX is looking to get rid of this protection for its investors.

• The public’s access to the IPO: Any time insiders are looking to cut in an outsider for a “can’t miss” opportunity that’s normally reserved for the elite, it’s worth asking why. If it’s such an amazing opportunity, why is the public invited to buy so much of the stock, instead of the well-connected who normally get to enjoy a substantial first-day pop?

• Musk’s control of the company: According to Bloomberg, Musk may use a dual-share class structure for the company when it’s public. This structure may give Musk effective control of the company, regardless of what outside investors say. As I stated before, “With dual-share classes, insiders are asking for outsiders’ money with only the thinnest pretense of caring about outsiders’ interests. This misalignment can go radically wrong.”

The SpaceX IPO may turn out to be the largest IPO ever, but how it performs over time will be the true test. It has a few yellow flags that investors need to be aware of before they put down their hard-earned money.

Regards,

James Royal

Editor’s Note: Elon Musk reinvented the auto industry, sparked a new era of space exploration, and built the world’s largest satellite network. But his new initiative – “Project Apex” – could become the crown jewel of his career. And, like Tesla, it could make early investors incredibly wealthy. Click here for the details.