SpaceX raises $75 billion in record IPO, making Elon Musk world's first trillionaire

Pricing details

SpaceX disclosed late Thursday that it had sold all 555,555,555 shares offered in its initial public offering at $135 each, raising precisely $75 billion. Founded in 2002, the company has reshaped the space industry with its reusable Falcon rockets and the Starlink satellite broadband network, now serving millions of users. The sale gives the Hawthorne, California-based rocket and satellite company a market capitalisation of roughly $1.77 trillion. Trading on the Nasdaq begins Friday under the ticker symbol SPCX. The offering was heavily oversubscribed, with retail investors reportedly receiving an unusually large allocation.

Historic record

The deal shatters the previous record held by Saudi Aramco, which raised between $24.9 billion and more than $29 billion in its 2019 listing. SpaceX's valuation of $1.77 trillion easily surpasses Aramco's $1.7 trillion at the time, making it the most valuable company ever to go public.

Musk's wealth milestone

Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 at age 31, did not sell any shares in the IPO. His ownership stake is now worth at least $860 billion, according to the New York Times, while Axios put the figure at over $866 billion. The Wall Street Journal, however, reported a lower valuation of around $690 billion for his position. Mr. Musk cannot sell a portion of his SpaceX shares until the company meets certain operational targets, according to regulatory filings. Combined with his Tesla shares and other holdings, the 54-year-old Musk becomes the world's first person with a net worth exceeding $1 trillion on paper.

Market outlook and the greenshoe

Underwriters have the option to purchase an additional 83.3 million shares within 30 days, which would raise another $11.2 billion if fully exercised. On the prediction platform Hyperliquid, synthetic SpaceX shares were trading near $167, implying a first-day pop of about 24%. Strong demand signals suggest a sharp opening rally, though the long-term question remains whether the company can grow into its staggering valuation given its ambitious projects in space and chip manufacturing.

Mega-IPO pipeline

SpaceX's blockbuster debut is expected to kick-start a series of mega-IPOs. Anthropic and OpenAI, two leading artificial intelligence firms, have both filed confidentially to go public in recent days, each with valuations approaching $1 trillion. If they succeed, it would mark the first time that three companies worth over a trillion dollars each hit public markets within a single year.