SpaceX IPO: $75B Raise, SPCX Soars in Debut

SpaceX, the aerospace venture founded by Elon Musk, debuted on the Nasdaq on June 12 under the ticker SPCX after pricing its initial public offering at $135 per share. Raising $75 billion, the listing established a new record as the largest IPO in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion offering in 2019.

The stock began trading at $150, representing an 11% premium over the IPO price. Shares of SPCX subsequently climbed to an intraday high of $176.52 before stabilizing near $170 in afternoon trading, pushing the company's market valuation beyond $2 trillion. The surge briefly made Musk the world's first paper trillionaire.

The Largest IPO in History, Triple Aramco's Mark

In details, SpaceX sold 556 million shares at $135 per share on Thursday night to raise $75 billion. This amount is nearly triple the $29.4 billion raised by Saudi Aramco in 2019, which previously held the record for the largest IPO.

Based on approximately 13.076 billion outstanding shares, the $135 IPO price valued SpaceX at $1.77 trillion, while the $150 opening price pushed its valuation to $1.96 trillion. As the stock price surpassed $166 during the day, the company's market capitalization reached $2.17 trillion, making SpaceX the sixth most valuable publicly traded company in the United States.

The path to the listing was exceptionally rapid: a confidential filing in April was followed by a public Form S-1 in May, a roadshow in early June, and a debut within two months. A week prior to the listing, SpaceX highlighted its artificial intelligence revenue potential by disclosing a $920-million-per-month computing lease with Google.

SPCX Stock Price Hits $176.52 Intraday on Retail Surge

Intense buying interest emerged from the first minutes of the Nasdaq debut. After starting at $150, the SPCX stock price peaked at $176.52 in afternoon trading—representing a 31% gain from the offering price—before settling into a range between $165 and $172. According to CNBC, more than 360 million shares had changed hands by 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, ten times the first-day volume of Cerebras, the year's second-largest listing.

Individual investors drove unprecedented volume. Citadel Securities reported processing its highest volume of retail orders for any IPO auction in its history, while Fidelity recorded 500,000 buy orders within the first hour of trading. The surge in retail traffic also caused brief service disruptions at Robinhood.

Musk marked the Nasdaq debut by ringing the opening bell remotely from the SpaceX headquarters in Texas. He later posted a message to the company's 22,000 employees on X, stating, 'I love the incredible people of SpaceX beyond words.'

Market Focus Shifts to OpenAI and Anthropic

The market enthusiasm did not extend to competitors. Virgin Galactic shares fell 27% and Rocket Lab dropped 7% on the day of the Nasdaq debut, as investors redirected capital from other space-related equities to concentrate on SpaceX.

Market attention is already moving to the next mega listings. OpenAI and Anthropic have both filed confidentially for initial public offerings, with Nasdaq debuts projected later this year. Collectively, these listings will provide the public markets with a definitive performance metric for the generative AI sector.

However, the SpaceX prospectus outlines substantial risks. The Form S-1 highlights a business strategy that references Mars 63 times, a performance-based compensation package for Musk valued at up to $7.5 trillion contingent on establishing a one-million-person Mars colony, and regulatory risks associated with the 'unhinged' modes of the Grok AI model. Fresh off the largest IPO in history, the $2 trillion company will now see its SPCX stock price graded through quarterly earnings reports.