Global financial markets reached an unprecedented milestone as the largest initial public offering on record officially debuted. On Friday, June 12, 2026, Elon Musk’s rocket and spacecraft manufacturer, SpaceX, officially launched its public listing under the ticker symbol SPCX. Early trading indications showed the stock poised to open 30% above its initial offering price, heading toward $175 per share. This explosive debut quickly propelled the company’s valuation to nearly $2.29 trillion, easily surpassing the value of established corporate giants like JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway, Eli Lilly, Meta Platforms, and even Musk’s own electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla.
The historic public listing locked in its record parameters on Thursday evening, when the company officially priced its shares. The aerospace pioneer sold a massive 555.56 million shares at a set rate of $135 per share, successfully raising $75 billion in the most highly anticipated capital raise in U.S. history. This initial pricing valued the company at a whopping $1.77 trillion, eclipsing the previous largest initial public offering, which the Saudi state oil giant completed in December 2019 by raising $25.6 billion at a starting valuation of $1.71 trillion. Even when adjusting those historical figures for inflation, the space giant’s debut stands alone as the biggest financial listing in history.
Founded in 2002, the company has grown to dominate the commercial space industry, currently accounting for more than four-fifths of all the payload mass launched into orbit over the past three years. Most of the firm’s current revenue streams flow directly from its highly successful Starlink satellite internet service, which connects customers across 164 countries and territories. In 2025, the company generated $18.67 billion in total revenue, with Starlink accounting for roughly 60% of that figure by serving approximately 10.3 million users through an expansive constellation of 9,600 active satellites. Additionally, a highly publicized corporate merger with artificial intelligence startup xAI in early 2026 has transformed the company into a vertically integrated technology powerhouse.
The unprecedented public listing bypassed traditional banker-led marketing roadshows entirely, opting instead to allocate a generous 30% of its total shares to retail buyers. This democratization of the process triggered an extraordinary wave of retail demand that reached over $100 billion, with millions of everyday investors scrambling to secure a piece of the history-making offering. Simultaneously, major institutional investors engaged in their own frantic struggle for allocations, representing nearly 1.5% of the country’s total active retail investment accounts. A leading global asset management giant alone submitted a massive, single $5 billion order to anchor the listing, proving that the world’s most powerful financial institutions are eager to back the founder-driven vision.
Despite the massive price tag, optimistic Wall Street analysts have quickly lined up to defend the company’s long-term valuation. A leading independent brokerage became the first to initiate coverage of the stock, issuing a highly positive rating with a bullish $190 price target, representing a potential 41% upside from the initial offer price. Analysts at the firm described the aerospace pioneer as the only vertically integrated artificial intelligence company in the world with the capital, proprietary data, hardware, and engineering talent to dominate the future. Other optimistic underwriter models project a spectacular, 100-fold surge in artificial intelligence revenues to $322 billion by 2030, which plans to deploy advanced, space-based data centers.
In sharp contrast to this headline-grabbing enthusiasm, a highly vocal contingent of market skeptics and short sellers has warned that the stock remains significantly overvalued. A prominent global research firm initiated coverage with a highly conservative estimate, valuing the company at just $63 per share—an alarming 53% discount to the initial public offering price. Independent valuation experts also set the firm’s true enterprise value at a much lower $1.22 trillion, noting that the company trades at a staggering 90-times sales multiple, compared to Tesla’s far more modest 14-times multiple. Skeptics stress that the company swung to a heavy $4.94 billion net loss in 2025 following its merger with the unprofitable xAI, reversing a comfortable $791 million profit from 2024.
The company’s unique corporate governance structure has also added a layer of caution for potential long-term investors. Following the listing, founder Elon Musk will retain an estimated 80% to 85% of the total voting rights, ensuring that public shareholders will have virtually no influence over strategic business decisions. Analysts warn that the initial public offering will test modern investors’ willingness to embrace a highly concentrated model of public ownership, in which they must place total faith in a single founder’s vision on an unprecedented multi-trillion-dollar scale. Furthermore, the company has implemented strict anti-takeover provisions, making it impossible for outside activists to challenge executive policies.
Finally, complex index mechanics could delay the massive, passive inflows of capital that typically support high-profile new listings. While the tech-heavy exchange recently modified its listing rules to allow the stock to enter its main index in just 15 business days, a prominent global index provider has declined to make any exceptions for early entry. This means that passive index funds, which manage billions of dollars, cannot purchase the stock until the company meets strict, trailing profitability guidelines, potentially delaying index inclusion until at least 2028. Analysts warn that without this immediate institutional index-buying support, early retail investors risk providing short-term exit liquidity for pre-IPO institutional holders looking to cash out.
