In a historic market debut, SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026, with shares opening at $150—roughly 11% above the IPO price of $135 set the previous day. The stock quickly climbed to an intraday high of $176 before closing at $160.95, a 19% gain. At its peak, SpaceX’s market capitalization reached nearly $2.3 trillion.
The strong performance was widely expected. According to Bloomberg, the IPO was oversubscribed by a factor of four, leaving many institutional investors without allocations and driving them to purchase shares on the open market. Demand was further intensified by SpaceX’s small public float—only about 4% of total shares are available for trading, with the rest held by early investors and employees. Additionally, SpaceX successfully lobbied several major indexes, including the Nasdaq 100, to fast-track inclusion rules. As a result, the company will join these indexes within days rather than months, prompting large funds and institutions to begin automatic buying earlier than usual.
Retail investors also showed unprecedented interest. Robinhood reported record-breaking traffic on its platform on the day of the debut, reflecting widespread enthusiasm for the space giant’s public listing.
The IPO generated one of the largest windfalls in venture capital history. Founders Fund, which invested $600 million for a 3% stake, saw its holdings valued at over $50 billion at the $135 IPO price, per Bloomberg. Andreessen Horowitz’s stake is worth more than $10 billion, while Sequoia Capital’s exceeds $20 billion.
The milestone also catapulted SpaceX founder Elon Musk into the history books as the world’s first trillionaire. The New York Times reported that approximately 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees will become millionaires, and around 400 will become centimillionaires.
This article was originally published at 11:00 a.m. ET and has been updated with final share prices and additional information.
via TechCrunch