Quick overview

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SpaceX became one of the most valuable public companies, with buyers of the initial public offering (IPO) a 19 percent return, and made its founder Elon Musk the first trillionaire in history.

However, the record-breaking $75 billion offering also achieved another goal:  investors in Musk’s business, as well as the entire stock market, which has risen this year due to optimism about the potential for artificial intelligence growth, to breathe a sigh of relief.

The listing was a referendum on the market’s current leadership as well as the IPO prospects of rivals Anthropic PBC and OpenAI, both of which intend to go public as soon as this year. According to Robert Gruendyke, senior portfolio manager for the growth equity team at A, “it bodes well for the market and for these other IPOs that are coming that are going to be quite sizable as well.”

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen, and Musk’s mother Maye had to navigate through throngs of photographers, police, and spectators. Musk stayed behind at the company’s Starbase, Texas, headquarters and remotely rang the exchange’s opening bell.

SpaceX launched 29 of its Starlink satellites into orbit on its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, leaving many of its staff with additional tasks to complete. Institutions and individual investors demanded more than $350 billion from the IPO. According to some, nearly one-third of the businesses that placed orders never received any stock. Retail traders delivered over $100 billion in demand, most of which was unmet because the group only received a $15 bill.