If you follow the stock market or financial news at all, you’d have to be living under a rock to not know that Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—better known as SpaceX—is going public.
Shares were officially priced yesterday and are expected to begin trading today. The IPO is both the largest in history and one of the most contentious.
Here’s what you need to know about SpaceX’s IPO.
What is SpaceX?
Space Exploration Technologies Corp is the largest player in the private space industry. Its largest private owner is tech billionaire Elon Musk.
With its stock market debut today, SpaceX will be the second public company that Musk controls, the first being Tesla.
While SpaceX is best known for its space products, such as the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship rockets, the company also owns several other high-profile businesses.
Those businesses include xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, which develops both hardware and software for the artificial intelligence industry. SpaceX’s ownership of xAI is why you will sometimes see SpaceX also referred to as an AI company.
SpaceX also owns Starlink, the satellite internet provider. Notably, Starlink is the only profitable division of SpaceX so far, making it a shining light for the company.
When is SpaceX’s IPO?
SpaceX confirmed the final details of its initial public offering yesterday. Its shares are expected to begin trading today (Friday, June 12, 2026).
What is SpaceX’s stock ticker?
SpaceX’s shares will trade under the stock ticker “SPCX.”
What market will SpaceX’s shares trade on?
Shares in SpaceX will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and Nasdaq Texas.
What is the IPO share price of SPCX?
The initial public offering price for SPCX shares is $135.00 per share.
How many SPCX shares are available in its IPO?
SpaceX’s initial public offering saw 555,555,555 million of its Class A common stock shares go on sale. Additionally, SpaceX is giving its underwriters an additional 30 days to purchase up to an additional 83,333,333 shares of its Class A common stock.
SpaceX’s underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, and more.
How much did SpaceX raise in its IPO?
With 555.5 million shares sold at $135 each, SpaceX raised $75 billion in its IPO. This makes SpaceX’s IPO the largest IPO in history—by a long shot. The prior largest IPO in history was the oil giant Saudi Aramco. Its 2019 IPO raised nearly $25.6 billion, according to data from Renaissance Capital.
SpaceX’s IPO is nearly three times that.
For those keeping track, these are now the 10 largest IPOs in history, according to Renaissance Capital data:
- SpaceX (2026): $75 billion
- Saudi Aramco (2019): $25.6 billion
- Alibaba (2014): $21.8 billion
- SoftBank (2018): $21.3 billion
- NTT Mobile (1998): $18 billion
- Visa (2008): $17.9 billion
- American International Assurance (2010): $17.8 billion
- ENEL SpA (1999): $16.5 billion
- Facebook (2012): $16 billion
- General Motors (2010): $15.8 billion
How much is SpaceX worth?
At its IPO price of $135 per share, SpaceX is now worth around $1.77 trillion.
That is a staggeringly large valuation for a company that is only now going public and has never turned a profit to date (although one of SpaceX’s most prominent divisions, satellite internet operator Starlink, does turn a profit).
To put SpaceX’s valuation into context, these are now the top 10 most valuable publicly traded companies, according to CoinMarketCap:
- Nvidia: $4.96 trillion
- Alphabet: $4.35 trillion
- Apple: $4.34 trillion
- Microsoft: $2.9 trillion
- Amazon: $2.6 trillion
- TSMC: $2.2 trillion
- Broadcom: $1.8 trillion
- SpaceX: $1.7 trillion
- Saudi Aramco: $1.8 trillion
- Tesla: $1.5 trillion
With SpaceX’s instant accession to the trillion-dollar club, there are now 16 publicly traded companies worth $1 trillion or more.
What are analysts saying about the company’s valuation and price targets?
SpaceX’s IPO is drawing controversy, particularly for its valuation, which many investors and analysts say is much too high for a company that is far from achieving a profit.
These individuals argue that SpaceX’s IPO share price of $135 is much higher than its fundamentals should allow for, and as a result, the stock is overvalued.
The most high-profile institution making this argument is the financial services giant Morningstar, which argues that SpaceX is actually worth less than half of its IPO valuation, notes CNBC.
And Morningstar is far from alone. As Fast Company reported yesterday, other critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have expressed deep concerns about SpaceX’s IPO, particularly its high valuation.
While SpaceX’s IPO is expected to make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire today, and could make 4,400 of its employees millionaires today, many experts worry that retail investors could be left with steep losses as early equity holders cash out when the stock is sky high.
Of course, not all analysts and investors agree that SpaceX is overvalued. As reported by Reuters, Oppenheimer recently issued an “outperform” rating on the stock, with a $190 price target.
At that price, SpaceX would be valued at around $2.5 trillion. In other words, Oppenheimer believes the stock could increase around 33% over its IPO price.
Investing.com also reports that New Street Research initiated coverage of SpaceX with a 12-month price target of $165 per share, representing about 22% growth from its $135 IPO price.
What time does SpaceX stock go live?
While the Nasdaq opens at 9:30 a.m. ET this morning, SpaceX shares likely won’t begin trading at that moment. This is because of a required “price discovery” process, notes Coinpedia.
SpaceX’s underwriters will need to match buy and sell orders manually before public trading begins. This means retail investors likely won’t be able to buy SpaceX shares until sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. ET today.
Disclosure: Morningstar was founded by Joe Mansueto, owner of Fast Company and Inc.