Elon Musk’s SpaceX opened at $150 on Friday after the company sold 555 million shares at $135 each in what would be the largest initial public offering in history.
The company raised approximately $75 billion in the IPO, surpassing the previous record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. Shares quickly climbed more than 10% in early trading.
“It’s certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public in the largest IPO ever,” Musk said from SpaceX headquarters in Starbase, Texas.
“I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all,” Musk added. “In fact, I told people this. I said, ‘Look, we’re probably going to fail, but you know, we should give it a try, because if we don’t, if there’s not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space-bearing civilization.”
The public offering also cemented Musk’s status as the world’s wealthiest person. His net worth is now valued at more than $1.2 trillion, making him the first person to reach trillionaire status. Musk owns roughly 42% of SpaceX shares and is required to hold them for one year.
The IPO also created a major windfall for SpaceX employees. More than 4,000 workers became millionaires through company stock holdings, including cafeteria employees who participated in the company’s stock program.
One employee, Trevor Hise, started at SpaceX as an intern in 2011 and accumulated more than 100,000 shares, now valued at more than $15 million. Hise said his parents once urged him to turn down the SpaceX offer and take a job with General Electric instead.
More than 100 SpaceX employees now reportedly have combined assets valued between $1 billion and $5 billion.
Musk and SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell marked the company’s public debut by ringing Nasdaq’s opening bell, with Musk appearing from Texas and Shotwell from New York City.
Shotwell said the company could pursue major deals following the record-breaking IPO, while also hinting at future overlap between SpaceX and Musk’s other companies.
“There’s no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures,” she said. “There’s a convergence of what we’re all trying to accomplish in the future, but right now I’m focused on keeping the lights on here.”
Musk has also floated the possibility of eventually merging Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX bought xAI earlier this year, giving the aerospace company ownership of xAI’s data centers, Grok AI models, and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
For now, Musk said the IPO proceeds will help fuel “a significant growth phase” for SpaceX. His plans include placing more than 1 million satellites in orbit and building artificial intelligence data centers in space.
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