SpaceX overtakes Amazon as Musk's fortune reaches $1.32 trillion after historic IPO

Record IPO and immediate surge

SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share and began trading, instantly making Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. Within days, the stock had jumped almost 50%, pushing the company's market capitalisation past $2.6 trillion. On Tuesday, June 16, shares rose for a third consecutive session, vaulting SpaceX ahead of Amazon.com as the fifth-largest company by market value. At its intraday high, the company's valuation briefly neared $3 trillion and surpassed even Microsoft.

Musk's wealth explosion

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index recorded Musk's fortune at $1.32 trillion on Tuesday, up from $696 billion before the IPO. The $620 billion gain in just four trading days is the largest single wealth jump in the index's history, exceeding the combined net worth of all billionaires in Latin America or the Middle East. That addition alone is six times Bill Gates's net worth and larger than Norway's annual GDP.

Low float magnifies moves

Only about 4.2% of SpaceX shares were available on the first day of trading, according to Bloomberg. That small free float makes the stock susceptible to outsized price swings.

“That is a factor. We're talking about a company that has very limited shares available for the public versus the headline market capitalization.”

Market analysts at Morningstar believe the stock is significantly overvalued, estimating fair value at around $63 per share, well below the $200-plus level it reached.

AI ambitions and Cursor deal

SpaceX has quickly begun deploying its newly raised capital. On Tuesday the company announced a formal agreement to acquire Cursor, an AI coding start-up, in a deal valuing the target at $60 billion. Cursor investors will receive SpaceX stock based on the implied equity value, according to a filing. A separate report in L'Opinion noted that Musk intends to use SpaceX's $86 billion cash pile to make up ground in artificial intelligence, targeting enterprise customers willing to pay for computing tools.

Retail demand and options frenzy

Retail traders have been a driving force, purchasing as much SpaceX stock in the first two trading days as they bought across the entire US stock market the previous week, data from Vanda Research showed. Tuesday also marked the launch of SpaceX options contracts on Cboe Global Markets and Nasdaq, with more exchanges expected to follow next week. The options debut could amplify volatility as market makers hedge their positions by buying shares, feeding further price swings.