Shares of SpaceX closed up 19% on Friday as Elon Musk’s area exploration firm made its market debut on the Nasdaq within the largest IPO in historical past. The inventory closed at $161.11 after opening at $150, giving the corporate a market cap of $2.1 trillion on the finish of its first day of buying and selling.
The IPO caps a outstanding journey for an organization that raised almost $12 billion in personal funding since its founding in 2002 to turn into the world’s most respected venture-backed startup with a most up-to-date private-market valuation of $1.25 trillion. Alongside the best way, SpaceX helped redefine each the area business and the late-stage enterprise market.
Its long-awaited providing raised some $75 billion and served as an unlimited liquidity occasion for Musk, who grew to become the world’s first trillionaire consequently, in addition to his shut good friend and confidant Antonio Gracias of Valor Fairness Companions, who reportedly now owns a stake valued at greater than $68 billion in SpaceX. It’s additionally a large and profitable exit for early enterprise and company buyers together with Google, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Craft Ventures and Founders Fund.
SpaceX’s providing was unconventional alongside a number of fronts. Together with the IPO’s record-breaking nature — greater than 10x bigger than Fb’s $104 billion providing in 2012 — the corporate additionally defied conference by setting a set worth of $135 per share, relatively than the standard method whereby buyers and bookbuilders decide a spread based mostly on demand.
Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX can also be wildly unprofitable. The corporate posted a internet lack of $4.28 billion within the first quarter of 2026, up greater than 700% from a 12 months in the past. Income totaled $4.69 billion in Q1, up 15% from a 12 months in the past. Its megacap valuation means it’s slated to commerce at an aggressive premium of 94x income.
The SpaceX providing is the primary in a lineup of a minimum of three historic IPOs this 12 months, with generative AI giants Anthropic and OpenAI overtly racing to make it to the general public markets in coming months. Altogether, the three IPOs switch some $3 trillion in worth from the personal to public markets.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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