Elon Musk’s SpaceX priced its initial public offering Thursday, raising $75 billion and cementing the rocket maker’s place among the world’s most valuable companies in what stands as the largest IPO in U.S. history. On Friday, Wall Street delivered its verdict: investors wanted in.
The offering valued SpaceX at approximately $1.77 trillion at its IPO price. SpaceX sold 555.56 million shares at $135 each, with reports indicating the offering was heavily oversubscribed — including by retail investors, who were allocated an unusually large portion of shares. Reports suggest retail orders alone exceeded $100 billion ahead of the debut.
The fanfare was unmistakable on Friday morning. SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, joined by company leadership and investors on the exchange floor. Adding a characteristic flourish to the occasion, SpaceX launched a rocket in Florida about an hour before the stock market opened.
Shares opened at $150 — an 11% jump from the IPO price — before climbing further as the session wore on. The stock reached an intraday high of $176.52 before paring some gains and closing at $161.11, up roughly 19% from the IPO price of $135. At that closing price, SpaceX became one of the world’s biggest listed companies on its very first day, with a market value above $2 trillion.
Retail demand showed no signs of cooling throughout the session. Vanda Research noted that SPCX was the most purchased stock by retail investors on the day by a wide margin, with net buying running at more than 3.5 times that of Nvidia. Some analysts cautioned that the exuberance could give way to choppiness. “The stock is bound to be volatile,” said Howard Chan, founder and CEO of Kurv Investment Management. “Maybe it’s better to harvest volatility premium while the equity price settles down.”
Analysts viewed the debut as a bellwether for the broader AI market. Capital Economics noted that if major IPOs are well received, many more companies are likely to ride investor enthusiasm by going public.
Musk did not sell any shares in the offering, leaving his stake valued at more than $866 billion. When combined with his Tesla holdings, that makes him the world’s first trillionaire, at least on paper.
The deal is poised to reorder the IPO record books only temporarily. Anthropic and OpenAI, two of the most prominent artificial intelligence companies, are both expected to pursue their own public listings later this year, potentially eclipsing SpaceX’s historic raise.