While Wall Street has long rewarded companies that promise to reach for the stars (at least figuratively), this Friday SpaceX (SPCX) actually delivered — shares opening at $150 and closing up nearly 19% at around $161, capping what Reuters confirmed as the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in history at $75 billion and a valuation north of $1.77 trillion.
This development also aligned with other positive economic news.
The company, which aims to put AI data centers in space, priced its shares at $135 each, raising about $75 billion and giving it an anticipated market capitalization of $1.77 trillion. On paper, CEO Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire.
Meanwhile, US stocks rose modestly as investors assessed reports that the US and Iran are closing in on an interim peace deal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.7%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added 0.3% following a surge in Wall Street stocks on Thursday as President Trump called off threatened strikes on Iranian targets.
…Also on Friday, the University of Michigan reported that US consumer sentiment rebounded from an all-time low reading of 44.8 in May to 48.9 at the start of June. One-year inflation expectations of 4.6% also came in below estimates.
The sky-high investor expectations were well-earned: in the months prior, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fleet had completed its 50th dedicated Starlink mission of the year, its constellation surpassed 10,000 active satellites in orbit, its 1,000th Starlink satellite of 2026 roared skyward in April. The SpaeX Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, stuck consecutive booster catches on Flights 8 and 9 and in May it’s enhanced V3 test launch successfully concluded in a soft landing in the Indian Ocean.
Not only did CEO Elon Musk become a trillionaire, but many SpaceX employees are now incredibly wealthy from the stock they earned by being part of this success.
Before Juan Hernandez became a welder at SpaceX, he had never heard of the company.”It was just another contract job for me at the time,” he told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent in a broadcast exclusive interview.Now, just over 10 years later, that leap of faith is paying off following the company’s $75 billion initial public offering. Hernandez, who now works at Jeff Bezos-owned rocket startup Blue Origin, has roughly 6,500 SpaceX shares. On Friday, SpaceX stock closed at $160.95, valuing his holdings at $1,046,175.SpaceX shares started trading on the Nasdaq late Friday morning under the ticker symbol SPCX, marking the long-awaited Wall Street debut of the rocket and satellite company.
Hernandez is not the only one.
Mr. Musk’s friends, such as the investor Antonio Gracias, as well as Silicon Valley venture capital firms and other private investment companies, are also set to reap large rewards. An analysis from Hill.com, a San Francisco-based investment platform, estimated that more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees were also likely to become millionaires from the I.P.O., with around 400 of those expected to earn $100 million or more.Mr. Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, has redefined the space industry with partly reusable rockets and a satellite internet service, Starlink. In February, SpaceX bought his A.I. company, xAI, which owned his social media platform, X. He separately runs the electric carmaker Tesla, as well as other companies.
However, in life there are both winners and losers. California is turning out to be a big loser, after it chased SpaceX and the rest of Musk’s companies away from the state after one of the state’s progressive politicians decided the smart move for her constituents was to insult him on social media with profanity.
Paired with other Golden State policies, the company headquarters moved to a town in Texas, now named “Starbase”.
But many Texans are becoming millionaires…so there is that.
Personally, my fiscally savvy husband thinks I should wait to buy stock until the price settles a bit. However, many people who love space exploration are already investing simply for the pride and joy of being connected to exploring our universe.
Personally, I am hoping for some stock as a birthday present.
For now, I will simply take joy in seeing a man dedicated to excellence and his like-minded team enjoying the prosperity they earned. This is what American ingenuity, private enterprise, and an absolute refusal to accept “impossible” as an answer looks like.
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