Spacex makes its Nasdaq debut after the largest public offering in history

The moment that Wall Street had anticipated all year arrived on Friday as SpaceX, the AI and aerospace company controlled by Elon Musk, began trading publicly on the Nasdaq in the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the history of financial markets. The listing also made Musk the world's first trillionaire.

SPCX opened at $150, over 10% above its $135 IPO price, and it was already above $160 after the first few minutes of live trading. The company confirmed on Thursday that it had priced 555.6 million Class A shares at $135 each, valuing the firm at roughly $1.78 trillion (€1.54 trillion) and targeting a raise of $75 billion (€64.5 billion). That instantly eclipsed Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion (€25.4 billion) listing, which had stood as the global record for almost seven years.

Only around 3% to 4% of SpaceX shares are currently available for public trading. The company had earmarked as much as 30% of its offering for retail investors, including 10% dedicated to European buyers, but the final amount was set at 20%. Options contracts on SPCX are scheduled to begin trading next week.

Forbes valued Musk's pre-IPO SpaceX stake, estimated at around 42% of the company, at about $500 billion (€435 billion). At the IPO valuation, those holdings are worth roughly $690 billion (€600 billion), adding nearly $190 billion (€165 billion) to his fortune and pushing his net worth closer to the $1 trillion (€870 billion) milestone. Along with Musk, thousands of SpaceX employees are benefiting from the IPO and becoming millionaires.

The listing will give millions of savers indirect exposure to SpaceX as the company is expected to qualify for major stock market indexes shortly after its debut. SpaceX is estimated to be fast-tracked into the Nasdaq-100 in less than a month, thanks to Nasdaq's new fast-entry rule introduced in May. The rule evaluates newly listed stocks for potential entry by ranking their market capitalisation on the seventh trading day. SpaceX already ranks in the top 10. Additionally, a rule requiring companies to float at least 10% of their shares was scrapped. Analysts estimate that funds tracking the Nasdaq-100 will need to purchase at least $7 billion (€6 billion) worth of SpaceX shares around the inclusion date. SpaceX has also become eligible for inclusion in both the Russell US Equity Indexes and the FTSE Global Equity Index Series under new fast-entry rules. However, the S&P 500 will not adopt a similar fast-track approach, meaning SpaceX will not join that index before mid-2027.

This article does not constitute financial advice; always do your own research and invest according to your specific circumstances.