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SpaceX didn’t just go public. It went supernova.
The Elon Musk-founded aerospace giant saw its shares climb as high as $176 on its first day of trading, a roughly 30% jump from its $135 IPO price. That intraday peak came after the company raised $75 billion by selling 555.6 million shares, making it the largest initial public offering in recorded history. And then, almost as an afterthought, underwriters moved to sell an additional 83.3 million shares through a greenshoe option, potentially pushing total proceeds to around $86 billion.
For context, the previous record-holder for largest IPO was Saudi Aramco’s 2019 listing, which raised roughly $25.6 billion. SpaceX tripled that. In one day.
First day fireworks under the SPCX ticker
Shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX on June 12, 2026, opening at $150, already an 11% premium to the IPO price.
From there, buying pressure pushed the stock to its intraday high near $176. By the closing bell, shares had settled at approximately $161, representing a still-impressive 19-20% gain from the offering price. That closing valuation briefly pushed SpaceX’s market capitalization above $2 trillion.
That additional tranche alone would raise roughly $11.2 billion, a figure that on its own would qualify as a blockbuster IPO in any normal year.
Retail investors got an unusually large slice
One of the most notable features of the SpaceX IPO was the allocation to retail investors, reportedly up to 30% of shares. That’s a dramatic departure from the norm.
In a typical IPO, retail investors usually receive somewhere between 5% and 10% of the total share allocation. SpaceX’s decision to triple or even quintuple that figure reflects a deliberate strategy to broaden its shareholder base.
From private darling to public behemoth
SpaceX spent 24 years as a private company. Founded by Musk in 2002, it built its business on a combination of NASA contracts, Department of Defense agreements, venture capital rounds, and the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite internet constellation.
The company’s private valuation trajectory tells the story of accelerating momentum. By mid-2025, SpaceX was valued at approximately $400 billion. That figure nearly doubled to around $800 billion by late 2025, setting the stage for the IPO that would ultimately value the company well above $2 trillion on the public markets.
The dual-class share structure SpaceX adopted for its listing ensures that Musk and other insiders retain outsized voting control despite selling billions of dollars worth of equity.
What this means for investors
A 30% first-day pop is also a signal that the IPO was potentially underpriced, which means the $75 billion SpaceX raised could have been significantly more if shares had been priced closer to where the market was willing to buy them. That’s money left on the table for SpaceX, and profit handed to investors who got allocations at $135.
The greenshoe exercise adds 83.3 million shares to the float, which increases supply.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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