SpaceX's Trillion-Dollar Debut
SpaceX Makes History with Largest IPO, Market Cap Now Exceeds $2 Trillion
SpaceX made history on June 12, 2026, completing the largest IPO ever — raising $75 billion and pushing its market cap beyond $2 trillion. Shares opened at $150 on the Nasdaq, an 11% jump from the IPO price of $135, and briefly hit $175 in early trading, according to Forbes.
The debut eclipses Saudi Aramco's previous record of $29.4 billion raised in 2019. Elon Musk, who holds 42% equity and up to 85% of voting power, could become the world's first trillionaire before the trading day ends, NBC New York reported.
A Rocket Launch Kicked Off the Market Debut
At 9:00 AM ET, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, carrying 29 Starlink satellites into orbit — just 30 minutes before the opening bell, The Guardian reported. President Gwynne Shotwell and CFO Bret Johnsen rang the Nasdaq bell in New York. Musk joined by video link from Starbase, Texas.
At the exchange, Shotwell declared, "Today, we make history again. We have a history of making history." Musk told the crowd it was "hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo" is now the biggest IPO ever, according to Nasdaq Newsroom. He added: "We want to take the fiction out of science fiction."
$75 Billion Raised After a Turbulent Road to Market
SpaceX filed its draft registration with the SEC on April 1, 2026. By June 3, it set a fixed IPO price of $135 — skipping the standard price-range process entirely, according to Tech Funding News. The company sold 555,555,555 Class A shares. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the deal, with each bank reportedly decorating their Manhattan lobbies with Starship models.
The five lead underwriting banks — Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA, Citigroup, and JPMorgan — accepted a fee of just 0.75%, totaling roughly $500 million. That's a record-low percentage for a deal this size, according to Fortune. SpaceX posted $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025, with $11.4 billion coming from Starlink, but still ran a net loss of about $4.9 billion.
Wall Street Bulls Clash With Skeptics Over True Value
Morgan Stanley analysts laid out a bull case where SpaceX reaches $3.4 trillion in revenue by 2040. But Morningstar warned the $1.77 trillion listing valuation is roughly 94 times SpaceX's 2025 revenue. Their analysts put a "fair value" closer to $780 billion — less than half the opening-day market cap.
Critics also questioned the February 2026 merger of Musk's AI startup xAI into SpaceX, which produced an operating loss of $2.47 billion in Q1 2026 alone. Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the SEC on June 9 urging a delay, citing concerns over "valuation, governance structure, and expected inclusion in major stock indexes," according to Seeking Alpha.
Musk Becomes a Trillionaire as Inequality Alarms Grow
Musk's personal fortune now exceeds $1 trillion, making him richer than the bottom 46% of the global population, according to CBS News. Oxfam America called the moment a marker of a "new Gilded Age." The IPO is also expected to create roughly 4,400 employee millionaires, with about 400 SpaceX staffers holding stakes worth over $100 million each.
The listing also has global ripple effects. Beijing is closely watching SpaceX's Starshield military division, viewing the company as a "critical component of American power." China has since accelerated its own satellite projects, Qianfan and Guowang. Meanwhile, Nasdaq's fast-entry rules will force passive index funds to buy billions in SpaceX shares in the coming weeks, according to CME Group.
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