SpaceX made history on June 12, 2026, with the largest initial public offering ever recorded. The company, founded by Elon Musk 24 years ago, priced 555.6 million shares at $135 each, raising $75 billion and setting a new benchmark for public market debuts. The valuation was large enough to potentially push Musk past the trillionaire threshold, a first in modern financial history. Shares opened at $150 on the Nasdaq, an 11% pop from the offering price, and climbed steadily throughout the day. By midday trading, SpaceX stock had soared roughly 30%, before settling at a closing price of $160.95, up 19% on the day. Trading volume was heavy, with Robinhood reporting record-breaking traffic on its platform in the hours following the debut.
The IPO generated massive fees for the banks that underwrote the deal, totaling around $500 million. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley emerged as the biggest winners among the financial institutions involved, according to the Wall Street Journal. Inside the company, insiders marked the occasion by wearing green shoes, a playful nod to the "green shoe option," a provision in the underwriting agreement that allows banks to sell up to 15% more shares than originally planned when demand runs high. Demand clearly ran high in this case, given the price action and volume.
SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell appeared on CNBC on Friday to discuss the milestone, and made a comment that caught the attention of Tesla shareholders. She suggested that a merger between SpaceX and Tesla "might make Elon's life a little easier," hinting at potential future consolidation between two of Musk's most valuable companies. Musk himself took to X, the social media platform he owns, to praise the SpaceX workforce. "I love the incredible people of SpaceX beyond words," he posted, and shared several IPO-related updates throughout the day.
The public offering caps a remarkable trajectory for SpaceX, a company that grew from Musk's early reusable rocket ambitions into the operator of the Starlink satellite network and one of the most valuable private companies in the world before going public. Investors, media, and the public have followed SpaceX's journey from its early struggles to its current dominance in commercial spaceflight, and Friday's trading debut only amplified that attention. The IPO is likely to reshape conversations about space industry valuations, Musk's broader business empire, and the future of public market appetite for big-ticket tech offerings.