How SpaceX’s $75 Billion IPO Shattered Records and Made Elon Musk the First Trillionaire

The offering was led by 21 banks, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley serving as the lead underwriters . Underwriters also hold a greenshoe option to purchase an additional 83.3 million shares at the $135 IPO price, which would push the total raise to roughly $86.25 billion if fully exercised .

First-Day Trading: A Surge, Then a Settle

When SPCX began trading on Friday, the opening cross cleared at $150 per share—an 11.1% premium over the IPO price . The stock didn't stop there. It surged more than 30% shortly after listing, hitting an intraday high of $176.52 before cooling off . By the 4 p.m. ET close, the shares settled at $160.95, up 19.2% from the offer price and giving SpaceX a market capitalization of approximately $2.1 trillion . The intraday low was $149.34 .

The stock continued its climb after the closing bell. In after-hours trading, SpaceX shares rose roughly 3.5% to $166.76, boosting the company's market capitalization further to an estimated $2.2 trillion .

Elon Musk: The First Trillionaire

The combination of Musk's stake in SpaceX, along with his holdings in Tesla, xAI, and other ventures, pushed his personal net worth past the $1 trillion mark during the first day of trading, making him widely reported as the world's first trillionaire . The trigger was the post-IPO surge that lifted SpaceX's market cap above $2 trillion.

The Retail Investor Experiment

One of the most unconventional aspects of the SpaceX IPO was its heavy focus on individual investors. Musk initially sought to allocate up to 30% of the shares to retail buyers—at least three times the typical 5-10% allocation for large IPOs . The strategy was described as "rewriting the IPO playbook," leveraging Musk's strong retail fan base to stabilize the stock post-listing . Brokerages even lowered barriers: Fidelity announced that customers with as little as $2,000 in a brokerage account could access IPO shares, a dramatic departure from standard requirements that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars .

However, on the eve of the IPO, SpaceX scaled back the retail allocation to the low 20% range, still significantly above historical norms . Despite the reduction, retail demand was staggering. Individual investors submitted over $70 billion in orders—enough to nearly cover the entire $75 billion raise by themselves .

Forced Index Buying on the Horizon

The sheer size of SPCX's market cap immediately triggered forced-buying dynamics for major index funds. MSCI and FTSE Russell indexes were expected to add the stock at their next quarterly rebalancing, compelling trillions of dollars in passively managed assets to purchase shares . S&P Dow Jones Indices faced a more complicated decision, as SpaceX's dual-class share structure—with Musk retaining control through super-voting Class B stock—could clash with the S&P 500's eligibility policies . Index providers had not yet issued final rulings on the day of the debut.

Analyst Warnings: Priced for Perfection

Despite the celebratory tone of the launch, several analysts struck a cautious note.

Truist analyst Sam Grelck warned that SpaceX's $2.1 trillion valuation was "priced for perfection" and that the heavy retail participation—while a defining feature—could introduce significant volatility if Musk's fan base ever turns sour . Other observers pointed out that the price-to-sales multiple at debut was extremely elevated compared to traditional aerospace peers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and that a substantial portion of the valuation relied on speculative future revenue from Starlink's broadband expansion and Musk's AI data center ambitions .

Some market watchers noted that the 19.2% first-day gain, while strong in absolute terms, was actually below the average first-day pop for major tech IPOs. This suggested that the fixed $135 offer price was already near what the market considered fair value and limited the immediate upside for IPO buyers . The decision to forego a traditional price range in favor of a fixed price was seen as a way to minimize uncertainty but also reduced the potential for a larger "pop" .

In the end, SpaceX's market debut was a historic event that reshuffled the ranks of global public companies overnight. Whether its valuation can be justified by future execution remains the trillion-dollar question.