Shares of SpaceX opened at $150 each on their first day of trading in the company’s landmark initial public offering – making founder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
Shares of the rocket company opened up 11% from their IPO price of $135, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly $1.96 trillion. Shares began trading just after 11:47 a.m. Friday on the Nasdaq Composite Index under the ticket “SPCX.”
In the minutes following the debut, the shares quickly escalated to the $160 mark, raising the company’s market cap to $2.1 trillion, instantly making it one of the world’s most valuable companies.
The listing cements Musk’s position as the wealthiest individual in modern history – pushing the tech mogul’s net worth above $1 trillion. After the IPO, Musk will control about 82% of SpaceX, according to filings.
“SpaceX going public is an important moment for the broader tech sector in our view as this AI Revolution and data takes this next step forward,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Some 555.6 million shares of SpaceX – which operates a rocket, satellite internet and artificial-intelligence businesses – were sold of the in the hotly anticipated IPO, according to a statement posted on SpaceX’s website on Thursday afternoon.
The solid opening sets the tone for a string of other massive public listings this year including AI juggernauts Anthropic and OpenAI.
In February, SpaceX merged with Musk’s AI outfit xAI.
Investor demand for the offering was massive. Orders reportedly exceeded the amount of shares that were available several times over, including huge interest from retail investors who submitted more than $100 billion in purchase orders, according to Bloomberg.
The IPO for SpaceX — which owns artificial intelligence company xAI, satellite-internet business Starlink and social media platform X — shattered the previous record set by Saudi Aramco’s IPO, which raised $29.4 billion in 2019.