SpaceX began trading Friday on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol SPCX, completing the largest initial public offering in stock market history. The company priced its shares at $135 and raised $75 billion, giving it an immediate market valuation of approximately $1.77 trillion.
The figure more than doubles the previous record. Saudi Aramco raised $35.4 billion when it went public in 2019, a number that stood unchallenged for seven years.
SpaceX offered 555.6 million Class A common shares to the public. Underwriters hold an option for an additional 83.3 million shares, worth roughly $11.2 billion, to manage excess demand if needed.
Demand was not a problem. Reports indicate the offering ran four times oversubscribed before CEO Elon Musk and his banking team stopped taking orders a day early, on Wednesday rather than Thursday, to give underwriters more time to allocate shares. Retail investor orders alone exceeded $100 billion.
“Elon always said that ‘Your salary is one thing, but it’s the equity that’s gonna be worth something.’ And we were all like, ‘Yeah, okay, someday,'” Tom Mueller, SpaceX’s first employee, told Fox Business. “That day is here. It’s great.”
SpaceX deliberately targeted everyday investors in the offering. The company named Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, SoFi, and E*TRADE in its prospectus as platforms offering IPO-price access to retail buyers, targeting a retail allocation of nearly 30 percent of shares.
Roughly 4,000 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to become millionaires as a result of the listing, based on their access to stock options accumulated over the company’s 24-year history. Musk himself holds a significant stake but is subject to a lock-up restriction preventing him from selling for a full year. Only about four percent of SpaceX’s total shares are being floated in this offering, with the remaining 96 percent held by insiders, early investors, and employees under a staggered lock-up schedule tied to the company’s first quarterly earnings as a public company.
Musk’s net worth, estimated at approximately $793 billion prior to the IPO, could rise by 26 percent based on his ownership stake, potentially making him the world’s first trillionaire.
SpaceX operates the Starlink satellite internet network, manufactures the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and has active contracts with NASA, the Department of Defense, and commercial clients. The company launched more than 130 missions in 2025. It plans to send an uncrewed Starship to Mars in 2027.
