SpaceX made its historic debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday, June 12, under the ticker SPCX. The initial public offering was the largest in history, raising $75 billion. The company sold 555.6 million shares priced at $135 each, far surpassing the previous record held by Saudi Aramco. The listing was preceded by a Falcon 9 rocket launch of Starlink satellites hours before executives rang the opening bell.
The stock soared during its first day of trading, opening at $150 and reaching a peak of $176 before closing at approximately $161, an increase of 19 percent. While the initial pricing gave the space, communications, and AI firm a valuation of $1.77 trillion, the trading surge pushed its market capitalization above $2.2 trillion. The offering drew more than $350 billion in demand from institutional and retail investors, including $2.2 billion from Japanese investors.
The IPO has turned founder and CEO Elon Musk into the world's first trillionaire. With a stake in SpaceX worth more than $766 billion combined with his holdings in Tesla, Musk's paper net worth is estimated between $1.05 trillion and $1.41 trillion. Despite some analyst questions regarding the valuation and criticisms of Musk's near-absolute control, investors have backed his ambitious vision for reusable rockets and orbital AI.
The landmark listing has propelled SpaceX into the ranks of the world's most valuable companies, though the firm continues to operate at a loss. While the debut was remarkably smooth, the IPO triggered a selloff across other rocket, satellite, and space-linked companies.