while it’s true that spacex is a private company, it’s widely known that they are highly profitable. they have many institutional investors, and a long line of people that would love to be on their cap table.

This. Elon’s entire MO is to lose more money than competitors, then raise more in the markets. Rise, repeat, claim successes, when in reality competitors just aren’t willing to lose that much money bootstrapping. SpaceX is no different.