Investors poured unprecedented demand into the offering as shares surged on opening day
Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on June 12 after shares of his rocket and satellite company, SpaceX, surged on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq, capping the largest initial public offering in Wall Street history.
SpaceX, which trades under the ticker symbol SPCX, opened at US$150 per share, 11% above its IPO price of US$135, and climbed as high as US$168 before closing just below US$161, according to the Associated Press. The closing price gave the company a market capitalization of approximately US$2.1 trillion, making it the sixth-largest publicly traded US company, ahead of Tesla, the electric vehicle maker that Musk also leads as chief executive officer.
Combined with his stake in Tesla and other holdings, Musk’s net worth reached an estimated US$1.1 trillion, according to Forbes, cementing his place as the first person in history to cross the trillion-dollar threshold. Before the IPO, Forbes had valued Musk at roughly $813 billion, more than twice the estimated fortune of the second-wealthiest person on the planet, Larry Page, at $288 billion, CBS News reported.
The IPO raised $75 billion, surpassing the previous record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019, the AP reported. Reuters reported that investor demand exceeded $250 billion in orders ahead of pricing, while Bloomberg News reported that retail investors alone submitted more than $70 billion in requests for shares.
Musk marked the occasion from Starbase, SpaceX’s South Texas headquarters and launch facility, where he joined a ceremonial bell-ringing for the Nasdaq opening. He used the moment to emphasize the company’s broader mission.
“SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the Moon, take you to Mars and ultimately beyond,” Musk said, according to CBS News.
He also reflected on the company’s origins.
“It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever,” Musk said, as reported by Variety.
AI ambitions weigh on earnings
Founded in 2002 as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SpaceX has grown into a diversified business spanning rocket manufacturing, the Starlink satellite internet service, orbital data centre development and its artificial intelligence unit, xAI. The company reported a net loss of approximately $4.94 billion in 2025, largely due to heavy AI-related spending and losses at xAI.
According to the Associated Press, SpaceX and its affiliated AI operations recorded roughly $8.7 billion in combined losses during the 15 months ended March 31, 2026.
SpaceX acquired xAI in February in an all-stock deal that CNBC reported valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion, making it, at the time, the world’s most valuable private company. Musk said in a statement on SpaceX’s website that the merger was aimed at building orbital data centres, arguing that terrestrial energy demand from AI “simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment.”
The xAI unit, which includes the Grok chatbot and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, posted a $6.35 billion operating loss in 2025, according to Morningstar.
Starlink remains SpaceX’s primary revenue driver, accounting for roughly 60% of total revenue in 2025. The satellite internet service generated more than $11 billion in revenue that year, according to IPO-related reporting, and has driven rapid global subscriber growth to more than 10 million users across over 150 markets by early 2026.
In May, SpaceX raised consumer Starlink plan prices by $5 to $10 per month, a move analysts said reflected a shift from subscriber acquisition toward extracting more revenue from its existing base, The Next Web reported.
Competition in the satellite internet sector is growing, with Amazon having sent up more than 300 satellites for its planned LEO service and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin targeting a constellation deployment beginning in the fourth quarter of 2027, CNBC noted.
