After years of anticipation, SpaceX has finally debuted on the Nasdaq, marking a historic moment for the aerospace industry and financial markets. The initial public offering (IPO) of Elon Musk's company shattered all records, raising a staggering $85.7 billion, making it the largest IPO in history. Shares priced at $135 each closed the first day at $160.95, up 19%, catapulting Musk to a net worth exceeding one trillion dollars for the first time ever.
The offering saw massive participation from retail and institutional investors. Robinhood reported record-breaking traffic on its platform in the hours following the debut. Investment banks, particularly Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, earned approximately $500 million in fees. However, the real story is Musk's overwhelming voting power: with 85.1% of voting rights, the CEO maintains monarchical control over the company, raising governance concerns.
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Staggering Numbers and Future Prospects
The S-1 filing revealed previously secret financial data. Despite over $18 billion in revenue in 2025, SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.9 billion, bringing cumulative losses since inception to over $37 billion. Nonetheless, investor confidence remains high, driven by the prospects of Starlink satellite internet and the xAI division. SpaceX has signed billion-dollar deals to sell compute power: Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month and Google $920 million per month. Furthermore, days after the IPO, SpaceX announced the acquisition of Cursor for $60 billion in stock. A potential merger with Tesla was hinted at by COO Gwynne Shotwell, who said combining the two companies could make Elon's life easier.
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Another surprising figure: 4,400 SpaceX employees could become millionaires through stock options. The IPO's impact extends to AI and data center sectors. As highlighted in a related article, flexible data centers help the power grid manage demand spikes, a relevant topic given the enormous energy consumption of SpaceX's computing infrastructure. Read more: Flexible Data Centers: AI Helps the Power Grid Manage Demand Spikes. Additionally, the IPO may spur further innovations, such as the neurotechnology described in Man with ALS Becomes 'First Power User' of Brain Implant.
For a deeper understanding of SpaceX's history, refer to Wikipedia.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/16/spacex-is-public-everything-you-need-to-know-post-ipo
