The SpaceX IPO dwarfs every public offering that came before it, including Saudi Aramco’s previous record of $24.9 billion.
The SpaceX IPO dwarfs every public offering that came before it, including Saudi Aramco’s previous record of $24.9 billion.
SpaceX on Friday raised $75 billion, making it the largest IPO in stock market history. At the IPO price, the company’s valuation came to approximately $1.77 trillion, placing it among the largest publicly traded companies in the United States and around sixth or seventh by market value, depending on market movements and methodology.
The deal is three times larger than the previous record holder. Saudi Aramco raised $24.9 billion when it listed in 2019. SpaceX’s $75 billion raise surpasses that figure by more than three times. Underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs alongside Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, were also granted an option to purchase an additional 83.3 million shares at the IPO price, which would add a further $11.2 billion to the total raised if exercised.
The IPO was reported to be heavily oversubscribed before pricing, with multiple institutional investors placing orders totalling more than $10 billion, according to Bloomberg. SpaceX took an unusual approach in setting a fixed price of $135 ahead of its roadshow rather than offering a traditional price range. Market observers viewed the move as a sign of strong expected investor demand.
Elon Musk retains more than 80 per cent voting control of SpaceX following the offering, according to company filings. At the IPO price, several media outlets reported that Musk’s estimated net worth exceeded $1 trillion on paper when accounting for his holdings across SpaceX, Tesla, and other ventures.
How it traded
The first trades on Friday opened at $150 per share, well above the $135 IPO price. The stock climbed as high as $175 during the session before settling back to close at $160.95, a gain of 19.2 per cent on the day.
SpaceX rang the Nasdaq opening bell from its headquarters in Texas, with President and COO Gwynne Shotwell and CFO Bret Johnsen joining company leadership for the ceremony.
The stock is expected to remain volatile in the days ahead as initial trading enthusiasm settles and longer-term investors assess the fundamentals.
What SpaceX actually does
SpaceX is a rocket and satellite company founded by Elon Musk in 2002. It operates across two primary business lines. The launch business, which includes Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and the Starship rocket, provides payload delivery services to commercial customers, NASA, and defence clients. The connectivity business, Starlink, is a satellite internet service that has grown rapidly to become one of the company’s most important business segments.
Starlink has continued to expand rapidly, with subscriber growth cited by analysts as a major driver of investor interest in the IPO. Analysts estimate that Starlink has become the company’s largest revenue contributor, with expectations for continued growth as satellite internet adoption expands globally.
SpaceX reported approximately $19 billion in revenue for its most recent financial year but has not yet posted a net profit. The company holds 18,712 bitcoin valued at just under $1.2 billion at current prices, according to its IPO filing.
SpaceX’s prospectus highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence across its operations, including areas such as satellite networking, communications, and data infrastructure. Investors and analysts have also closely watched Musk’s broader AI ambitions through xAI, although SpaceX and xAI remain distinct businesses unless otherwise disclosed in company filings.
What comes next
The SpaceX IPO is being closely watched as a signal for what comes next in the public market for large technology companies. SpaceX alone is expected to raise more money than all US IPOs in 2024 and 2025 combined, according to analysis cited by NBC News, which could push 2026 into the record books for IPO activity overall.
Alongside the traditional Nasdaq listing, a tokenised version of SpaceX stock was issued on the Solana blockchain by Backpack, enabling onchain trading and redemption of the underlying shares, testing investor appetite for the convergence of traditional equities and blockchain markets.
Investors are also watching whether other major private technology companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, eventually pursue public listings, although neither company has formally announced IPO plans. SpaceX’s debut, and how the stock performs in its first weeks of trading, is likely to influence broader sentiment around future technology IPOs.
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