SpaceX IPO Filing Faces Scrutiny After Musk’s X Post Contradicts Key Anthropic Details

SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO campaign hit early turbulence after CNBC reported Friday that CEO Elon Musk posted details about the company’s Anthropic deal that directly conflict with what the official prospectus says.

The Musk Post That Spooked Investors

Days before SpaceX is due to begin pitching shares to institutional investors, Musk described the company’s arrangement with AI startup Anthropic on X as a 180-day lease with a mutual 90-day cancellation option. The 300-plus page IPO filing, by contrast, describes Anthropic paying SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029. No short-term expiry or early exit window is mentioned anywhere in that document.

The financial stakes of the gap are enormous. Three full years of payments at the contracted monthly rate would imply roughly $45 billion in cumulative revenue. A deal that ends in months would produce a fraction of that figure.

A Governance Expert Flags the Problem

Columbia Law School professor Eric Talley, a corporate governance specialist, told CNBC the situation puts investors in an impossible position. Either the S-1 contains a material misstatement, or Musk’s public characterisation of the deal is inaccurate. Talley noted the confusion makes it genuinely difficult for anyone trying to assign a fair valuation to the company. Anthropic declined to comment. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

Disclosure Concerns Predate the X Post

The Anthropic discrepancy is not an isolated complaint. PitchBook analyst Franco Granda had already flagged multiple gaps in the prospectus after its initial publication. His review cited missing data on subscriber churn, Falcon 9 unit economics, and the utilisation rate of SpaceX’s deployed compute capacity. Granda also noted the filing gave no breakdown of revenue tied to Grok or X subscriptions.

The AI Unit Adds Complexity to an Already Stretched Valuation

SpaceX’s AI ambitions complicate the picture further. Musk merged xAI into SpaceX earlier this year in a transaction that valued the combined entity at roughly $1.25 trillion. In the first quarter of 2026, xAI-related capital expenditure hit $7.7 billion, helping push total capex above $10 billion for the period. The AI division, now called SpaceXAI, posted a $2.5 billion operating loss in that same quarter. SpaceX’s full-year 2025 revenue stood at $18.7 billion, meaning the Anthropic contract alone, if it runs to term, would represent an entirely new revenue stream nearly equal to that total.

The IPO is currently targeting a June 12 listing date.

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