SpaceX has priced the biggest-ever US initial public offering at $US135 per share, making Elon Musk’s rocket and spacecraft manufacturer one of the world’s most valuable companies.
The IPO raised a record $US75 billion ($A106 billion) on the sale of 555.56 million shares, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at $US1.77 trillion ($A2.51 trillion), a record for an initial offering.
Thursday’s pricing caps off a months-long effort that realised Musk’s most ambitious project yet even as he stood a handful of financial traditions on their head, and as some analysts question whether its lofty valuation is justified.
SpaceX will rank seventh among US-listed firms when its shares begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, though it lost money in 2025 and other mega-caps far outpace its revenue. That values the company more highly than firms as varied as JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly, as well as tech giants such as Meta Platforms and Musk’s own Tesla.
“The real test will be how the market digests the IPO over the next several weeks, not just one day,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.
“The pricing came in just about right – not too hot, not too cold. Clearly retail investors are buying and, at this stage, they are a big component of this. We need to see follow-through after the first day of trading.”
The sale breaks the previous record for the largest-ever IPO held by state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco, which raised $US25.6 billion ($A36.3 billion) on Riyadh’s exchange in December 2019, valuing it at $US1.71 trillion ($A2.43 trillion). In inflation-adjusted terms, Aramco raised $US33.2 billion ($A47.1 billion) for a $US2.21 trillion ($A3.13 trillion) value.
SpaceX’s $US1.77 trillion ($A2.51 trillion) valuation, based on 13.08 billion shares outstanding, could rise further should the underwriters exercise their right to sell additional shares, a decision typically made within 30 days after the offering. Reuters reported previously that SpaceX was seeking a $US1.75 trillion ($A2.48 trillion) valuation.
Musk also pushed, with mixed results, for early index inclusion that would create a broader base of buyers of SpaceX stock, and structured the company’s governance to preserve strong founder control.
Musk will hold 82 per cent of SpaceX’s voting power after the IPO. The US IPO market is set to rebound sharply this year after an earlier bout of volatility. Goldman Sachs has forecast proceeds could quadruple to a record $US160 billion ($A227 billion) in 2026, driven by a pipeline that includes not just SpaceX, but also artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic.
SpaceX last week said it has entered into a multi-year cloud services agreement with Alphabet’s Google, locking in computing capacity at a time of increasing competition.
Founded in 2002, SpaceX defines its mission as “to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” SpaceX said its market opportunity spans $US28.5 trillion ($A40.4 trillion), a figure it called the largest in human history.
The hurdles for the company at its enormous valuation include efforts by rivals such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to accelerate the commercialisation of space and pursue government contracts in a bid to unlock new markets beyond Earth.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan are joint book-running managers for the offering.
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