SpaceX prices IPO at $135 a share, targets $75bn raise in largest-ever debut as retail demand overwhelms supply

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the company Elon Musk founded in 2002 to make humanity multiplanetary, begins trading on the Nasdaq this Friday under the symbol SPCX. The offering prices 555.6 million shares at $135 each, raising roughly $75 billion and valuing the company at approximately $1.78 trillion on a fully diluted basis. That figure vaults SpaceX past Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion 2019 debut to become the largest initial public offering in history, and places the company among the ten most valuable listed firms globally.

Retail frenzy and allocation mechanics

Retail demand has overwhelmed the supply reserved for individual investors. According to Bloomberg calculations, small investors submitted more than $70 billion in orders, against an allocation expected to cover at least 20% of the available shares. That leaves unsatisfied demand running roughly five times the retail tranche. Jay Ritter, a University of Florida professor and IPO specialist, pegged institutional demand at about four times the shares on offer. The company also received orders from roughly 1,000 institutional investors, with BlackRock alone placing at least $5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Institutional demand exceeds approximately four times the number of shares that will actually be available for sale.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan are leading the offering, with Santander acting as a bridge for European investors. Neo-banks Trade Republic and Revolut have allowed clients to subscribe to SpaceX shares ahead of the debut via share subscription contracts. International orders will receive less than 10% of the shares, while another 10% of the placement is directed at European retail investors, an unusually high allocation.

Musk's control and wealth

Musk retains 84.4% of the voting rights through a dual-class structure. He holds 849.5 million Class A shares with full voting rights, valued at roughly $115 billion, plus 5.569 billion Class B shares with limited voting representation, worth approximately $751.8 billion. The offering places his net worth near $988 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the first person in modern history to cross the trillion-dollar threshold. His fortune now exceeds the combined wealth of the poorest 46% of the global population, roughly 3.8 billion people, according to Oxfam Intermón.

That a single person accumulates a fortune of more than a trillion dollars is incompatible with a just economy and a healthy democracy.

The three-pillar business

SpaceX is no longer just a rocket company. Its three main business pillars are Starlink, the satellite internet service; Starshield, the Pentagon-facing services arm; and xAI, the artificial intelligence division acquired in February 2026 alongside the Grok model. Starlink is the dominant revenue driver, contributing $11.4 billion of the company's $18.7 billion in 2025 revenue, or 61% of the total. The company added 4.6 million new Starlink customers in 2025 and expanded service to 35 new countries. Spain has become a key hub for Starlink operations. Despite the revenue growth, SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.9 billion in 2025.

The AI IPO pipeline

SpaceX's debut opens the door for two competitors in artificial intelligence. OpenAI filed for an IPO on Monday, and Anthropic submitted its own application the week before. Together with SpaceX, the three companies could add $3.6 trillion in market capitalisation to US exchanges. Cerebras, the chip maker whose $5.55 billion raise was the largest IPO of 2026 before this week, now looks modest by comparison.

Environmental and governance concerns

New environmental lawsuits are surfacing as the company goes public. The offering also concentrates extraordinary power in Musk's hands: he controls more than 80% of the voting rights while the company is operationally loss-making and generates revenue one-tenth the size of Meta's. The retail investor base, which represents roughly a third of Tesla's shareholder register, has twice validated enormous compensation packages for Musk, including a $56 billion package in 2024 and a bonus worth one trillion dollars a year later.