SpaceX IPO raises $85.7bn after greenshoe, vaults company to $2.26tn valuation and makes Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire

The IPO and the greenshoe

SpaceX sold 555.6 million shares at $135 each in its initial public offering on Friday, raising $75bn in what was already the largest IPO in history, nearly three times the previous record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. By Monday, underwriting banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America exercised the greenshoe option, selling additional shares from major shareholders to meet overwhelming demand. The final capital raised reached $85.7bn, according to one source, or $85.6bn per another.

Shares opened at $150 on Friday after a roughly two-hour delay caused by extreme demand that evoked memories of the Google IPO in 2004 and Meta's debut in 2012. The stock rose as high as $176.52 intraday, closing near $161, a 19% gain. In Monday pre-market trading, shares hit $170.10 and within the first two hours climbed to $174.58, pushing the market cap from $1.77tn at IPO pricing to $2.26tn.

Musk becomes the first trillionaire

Watching the company I joined when it was just sketches on paper become this valuable is almost surreal.

Elon Musk controls roughly 42% of SpaceX's equity through a dual-class share structure giving him 82% of voting rights. Forbes estimated the IPO pricing alone added $188bn to his fortune, bringing his net worth to approximately $982bn before trading even began. His stake was valued at $866.5bn at the IPO price. Combined with his Tesla holdings and other ventures, his wealth crossed the $1tn threshold, making him the first person ever to reach that milestone. Several thousand current and former SpaceX employees also became millionaires.

Revenue ambitions and Wall Street scepticism

On Sunday, Musk posted on X that he would be surprised if SpaceX revenue did not exceed $1tn by 2031, a nearly 55-fold increase from 2025 levels. The post was a response to a Morgan Stanley forecast estimating five-year revenue at roughly $330bn. Goldman Sachs projected SpaceX revenues could surpass $470bn by 2030.

SpaceX generated $18.67bn in revenue in 2025, up from $14.02bn the prior year, but posted a $4.94bn net loss, reversing a $791m profit in 2024. Wall Street analysts remain cautious. The company is not expected to turn profitable until 2027, with forecasts of $30.9bn revenue and a $1.8bn loss this year, rising to $49.6bn revenue by the time profitability arrives.

A valuation disconnected from fundamentals

At $135 per share, SpaceX was valued at $1.75tn despite its deep losses. Demand during the IPO was reportedly three to four times higher than supply. On the first trading day, over 510 million shares changed hands, worth roughly $84bn. The company now ranks among the six largest firms in the world by market capitalisation, ahead of Tesla, another Musk-founded company.

I would be surprised if revenue is not higher than $1 trillion in 2031.

Analysts point out that SpaceX generates a fraction of the revenue of similarly valued tech giants such as Broadcom and Amazon. The IPO arrived at a moment when a US-Iran agreement and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices lower, sending investors hunting for new places to deploy capital.

The Dogecoin ripple

Dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency long promoted by Musk, gained on Friday as retail traders bet that Musk's rising prominence would reignite interest in the token. DOGE rose from around $0.085 pre-session to near $0.09, reversing a sharp early-June decline of roughly 18%. SpaceX itself has accepted Dogecoin in the past, reinforcing the link between Musk's ventures and the coin's volatility.