HAWTHORNE, Calif. — SpaceX's public debut on the Nasdaq ended June 12 with SPCX closing at $161 per share, a gain of 19.3 percent over its $135 IPO price and a first-day result that placed the newly public rocket company among the largest stock market launches in American history.
The session was anything but quiet. SPCX touched an intraday high of $176.52 shortly after the open — a 31 percent premium over the IPO price — before settling back toward $161 as the day wound down. Trading volume topped 360 million shares, reflecting the extraordinary retail and institutional demand that had built for months ahead of the listing. SpaceX had already set a record by raising $75 billion in its IPO, the largest offering in US market history, before a single share changed hands on the open market.
Market Cap Crosses $2 Trillion
The close at $161 pushed SpaceX's market capitalization to approximately $2.11 trillion, crossing the $2 trillion threshold and making SpaceX one of the seven largest public companies on the planet by the end of its very first trading day. Only a handful of companies in history — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet, and Amazon — have reached that valuation, and none did it on their debut session.
The milestone also had a secondary effect: the jump in SpaceX's share price, combined with Musk's roughly 38 percent ownership stake, was sufficient to push his net worth past the $1 trillion mark, making him the first person in history to reach that threshold.
Record Demand From Every Direction
The $75 billion raised ahead of the debut came from the sale of 555.6 million shares at $135 each, all primary capital that flows directly into SpaceX's treasury for investment in Starship development, Starlink expansion, and AI infrastructure. The offering drew more than $150 billion in total orders from institutional investors alone — over two times oversubscribed — suggesting that $161 on day one may have substantially underpriced the genuine demand for SPCX.
Sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf, large pension funds including Ontario Teachers, and retail investors through platforms like Robinhood and Fidelity all participated. The breadth of buyers across geographies and investor categories is unusual even by the standards of major IPOs.
What Comes Next for SPCX
The first-day close establishes a price discovery baseline for SpaceX, but the more important question for investors is trajectory. SpaceX's Starship program is targeting its 13th flight for June 30, and Starlink V3 satellites — designed for 100x greater bandwidth than current hardware — are scheduled to begin launching later in 2026.
Both programs represent revenue expansion at a scale that dwarfs anything SpaceX has accomplished previously. With Starlink already accounting for roughly 69 percent of SpaceX's revenue, a V3 upgrade cycle and a commercially operational Starship could transform the company's financial profile within 18 to 24 months of going public. The full session recap, including live updates from opening bell to close, is available from CNBC's live coverage.
The 19 percent first-day gain gives SpaceX a strong initial signal from markets. If the company's operational programs land on schedule, the case for sustained appreciation looks compelling.
