New York, New York – Shares in Elon Musk‘s SpaceX jumped as much as 30% on their trading debut Friday for the biggest IPO in history, making the polarizing entrepreneur the world’s first trillionaire as he vowed to take humanity to Mars.
The blockbuster initial public offering, which raised more than $75 billion, is expected to kick off a series of major IPOs by AI companies in the coming months.
The debut on the Nasdaq exchange in New York capped weeks of investor frenzy over the rocket company turned AI and satellite conglomerate.
The company priced more than 555 million shares at $135 each in a Thursday filing with the US markets regulator, valuing SpaceX at just under $1.8 trillion.
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In its first hours of trading on Wall Street, the price hit as much as $175, up more than 30%.
Friday’s gain lifted SpaceX’s market value to more than $2 trillion, placing it among the 10 most valuable American companies.
Friday’s IPO comes just over a year after Musk left President Donald Trump’s administration, following a months-long stint leading the highly contentious “DOGE” effort to slash government spending – while simultaneously juggling his CEO roles at Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk’s backing of Trump and right-wing populists in Europe – and a long list of incendiary comments on X – has seen the entrepreneur go from a broadly admired prodigy to a deeply polarizing figure.
The record IPO is nonetheless a testament to Musk’s continued support among investors, with Bloomberg reporting that the offering was more than four times oversubscribed.
Demand among retail investors – for whom 20% of shares were reserved – was also reported to be high.
