SpaceX Raises About $75 Billion in Biggest IPO Ever, Shares Jump Nearly 20% in Nasdaq Debut

SpaceX made its long-awaited public market debut Friday in the biggest initial public offering on record, raising about $75 billion and finishing its first day of trading nearly 20% above its offering price. The company began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, marking a milestone not just for Elon Musk’s rocket company but for the broader commercial space industry.

The IPO was priced at $135 a share on June 11, with SpaceX selling about 555.6 million newly issued Class A shares in an all-primary offering, meaning the proceeds go to the company rather than existing shareholders. On Friday, the stock opened at $150, about 11% above the IPO price, rose as high as roughly $176 intraday, and closed nearly 20% above where it was sold to investors. At the offering price, the listing implied a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion to $1.8 trillion. At its intraday high, SpaceX’s market capitalization moved above $2 trillion.

The scale of the deal made it a watershed moment for equity markets as well as space investing. By dollars raised, SpaceX’s offering was widely described as the largest IPO in modern history, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s 2019 listing. It also arrived at a time when investors have been watching for signs that the pipeline from private markets to public exchanges is reopening for giant, closely held companies.

That made Friday’s debut more than another high-profile tech float. SpaceX came to market as one of the world’s most valuable companies on day one, instantly placing a commercial space company among the market’s biggest names. For an industry that has long relied on government contracts, venture backing and private fundraising, the listing was a defining public-markets test.

Founded in 2002 by Musk, SpaceX is best known for launch services and spacecraft as well as Starlink, its satellite broadband network. In its Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company described its two main businesses as launch and spacecraft on one side and Starlink on the other. Those operations have helped make SpaceX one of the most closely watched private companies of the past decade.

Investor enthusiasm, however, arrived alongside clear risks. SpaceX went public while still losing money. The Associated Press reported that the company posted an $8.7 billion loss from the start of 2025 through March 31, 2026, reflecting heavy spending. The company also adopted a dual-class share structure that leaves Musk with outsized control after the IPO. Reporting based on the SEC filing said he retains roughly 40% to 43% of the economic interest while controlling about 80% to 85% of the voting power through super-voting Class B shares.

The all-primary structure means SpaceX now has a large new pool of capital to fund its business, even as public investors are buying into a company that is still spending aggressively and gives its founder dominant voting control. That mix of scale, ambition and concentrated governance is unusual even by recent technology IPO standards.

Investors will also be watching what happens next in the index world. A Nasdaq rule change that took effect May 1 created a fast-entry path for very large IPOs into the Nasdaq-100 after about 15 trading days if they rank among the index’s biggest companies, a detail that could soon bring additional demand from index funds.