Friday morning in New York City began with a celebration. Gwynne Shotwell, the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, stood inside the Times Square MarketSite to ring the Nasdaq opening bell. Chief Financial Officer Brett Johnsen stood nearby, while Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk participated virtually from Texas. When the trading day began on June 12, 2026, the ticker symbol "SPCX" went live, and financial history was rewritten.
The numbers were staggering. SpaceX raised approximately $75 billion by selling 555.6 million shares of Class A common stock. This made it the largest initial public offering in stock market history, shattering the previous record held by Saudi Aramco. The most dramatic shift happened to one person's bank account. The successful market debut made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. The IPO added more than $180 billion to his personal fortune in a single day. Following the debut, his stake in SpaceX was valued at more than $766 billion. When combined with his $280 billion stake in Tesla, his total net worth reached approximately $1.05 trillion.
Musk was not the only winner. The public listing created thousands of new millionaires and several new billionaires among SpaceX employees and executives who held stock. The market demand for a piece of the space company was intense, with the offering being four times oversubscribed. Strong demand came from everyday retail investors and massive institutional investors, including BlackRock.
Shares were initially priced at $135, giving the company an initial valuation of approximately $1.77 trillion. When trading officially began, the shares opened at $150. By the time the market closed, the price had climbed to roughly $161 per share. This pushed the company's total market capitalization above the $2 trillion mark.
Despite the company's massive valuation, SpaceX has accumulated $41.3 billion in total losses since its founding in 2002. In 2025, the company generated $18.7 billion in revenue but still posted a net loss of nearly $5 billion. The company's valuation relies heavily on its Starlink satellite internet division and its recent acquisition of Musk's AI company, xAI.