SpaceX IPO: Quick look at the numbers

Picture Credit: by Phys

It was the IPO the world had been waiting for, and when it finally arrived, it broke records, broke the internet, and made history on multiple fronts simultaneously.

SpaceX went public on Friday, and by the closing bell, it had become the largest IPO in history. Shares settled at $160.95, up 19% from its IPO price of $135, giving the rocket and AI company a market valuation of $2 trillion, making it the sixth-largest publicly traded company in the United States overnight.

The man behind it all crossed a threshold no human being has ever crossed. Elon Musk, who owns nearly half of SpaceX's stock, saw his net worth hit $1.26 trillion, making him the world's first trillionaire. He marked the moment with a post on X: "I love the incredible people of SpaceX beyond words."

The retail frenzy was unlike anything brokerages had seen. Fidelity received 500,000 buy orders in under an hour. Robinhood experienced outages from the sheer volume of trades pouring in from everyday investors scrambling for a piece of the launch. An estimated 4,400 SpaceX employees are now millionaires.

The numbers cascade from there. SpaceX has 22,000 employees. The company launched 29 Starlink satellites into orbit on the very same day it went public, a reminder that while Wall Street celebrated, the rockets kept flying. Musk founded the company 24 years ago.

Musk's compensation package includes the option to purchase one billion additional shares at a discounted price, but only if SpaceX establishes a Mars colony of one million people. Even by his standards, that is an ambitious performance target.

SpaceX was the first of three major AI-related IPOs expected this year. OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to follow.

The space age just became a stock market event.