SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026, marking the largest initial public offering in history after pricing 555.6 million shares at $135 each and raising $75 billion. Elon Musk and SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell rang the opening bell to mark the aerospace company’s market debut, with Musk appearing via video link from Texas while Shotwell participated from the Nasdaq exchange in New York.
The IPO values SpaceX at approximately $1.77 trillion, making it the company’s first day as a publicly traded entity under the ticker symbol SPCX. The raise dwarfs the previous record holder, Saudi Aramco’s 2019 listing, which brought in $25.6 billion at a $1.7 trillion valuation—a benchmark that stood for nearly seven years before SpaceX shattered it.
The offering was heavily oversubscribed, with demand far exceeding the available shares. Retail investors received an unusually large allocation, with up to 30 percent of the deal reserved for individual investors—roughly triple the typical retail share in major IPOs. The fixed-price structure meant investors had to accept the $135 per-share terms or pass entirely, with no price discovery through a traditional book-building process.
SpaceX’s path to public markets accelerated dramatically in recent months. The company filed its S-1 prospectus in May 2026 and set the IPO price on June 11, moving from confidential filing to trading in a compressed timeline. The Nasdaq recently changed its index rules to allow newly listed companies ranking among the top 40 by market capitalization to join the Nasdaq-100 just 15 trading days after listing—a rule change widely seen as tailored to SpaceX’s scale.
The company’s businesses span satellite internet through Starlink, commercial and government rocket launches via Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and the Starship development program aimed at deep-space missions. Starlink has become SpaceX’s only currently profitable division, with approximately 10 million subscribers globally. The IPO capital will support expansion across all three business segments.
The opening bell ceremony underscored the historic nature of the moment. CNBC covered the debut live, with coverage highlighting both the Nasdaq opening in New York and the simultaneous Texas location where Musk appeared. Shotwell, who has led SpaceX’s commercial operations and partnerships for over two decades, told CNBC in an exclusive interview earlier in the day that she “wasn’t sure” the company would go public, but it “actually feels like the right time now,” noting that “across SpaceX’s various businesses, the building blocks of a publicly traded company are now in place.”
Sources
- Reuters — Confirmed SpaceX priced the IPO at $135 per share and raised $75 billion, with a $1.77 trillion valuation
- CNBC — Live coverage of the opening bell ceremony with Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell, plus Shotwell’s exclusive interview
- The Telegraph — Reported Elon Musk ringing the opening bell via video link from New York
- Investing.com — Confirmed Saudi Aramco’s 2019 IPO raised $25.6 billion, making SpaceX’s $75 billion raise the largest in history
- TechCrunch — Verified the 555.6 million shares priced at $135 each and the largest IPO designation
- CME Group — Documented that SpaceX’s IPO is roughly three times the previous record set by Saudi Aramco
