SpaceX‘s IPO record listing became official on Friday as shares opened at $150 on the Nasdaq, up roughly 11% from the $135 IPO price, according to Yahoo Finance. The space exploration and artificial intelligence company had priced 555.6 million shares at $135 each in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving its expected initial stock market value at nearly $1.8 trillion.
That opening price gave the company an immediate foothold as one of the most valuable public companies in the world, and set the stage for a record that had been building for weeks.
SpaceX IPO record listing surpasses Saudi Aramco
The offering did not just meet expectations: it surpassed them. After underwriters exercised the greenshoe allotment, the IPO raised nearly $86 billion, according to Quartz, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s 2019 offering to set a new record for the largest IPO in history. The original $75 billion raise had already been positioned as the highest-value stock listing ever contemplated; the greenshoe exercise pushed that figure further still.
Global brokerage Oppenheimer said on Thursday it expects the company to reach $190 a share, one of several analyst price targets already set above the $135 IPO price. Whether the stock sustains those levels will depend on trading demand as more shares become available on the open market.
Musk retains near-total control despite the public listing
Through a combination of Class A and Class B shares, Elon Musk will hold roughly 40% of SpaceX’s total equity, giving him more than 84% voting power. An analysis from Harvard Law School noted that even if Musk sells some of his Class A equity in the future, he would retain his lock on control through the volume of Class B shares he holds. That control extends to decisions on business deals, acquisitions of other Musk-owned entities, and his own compensation, the Harvard analysis said, creating potential risk for investors.
The governance structure means SpaceX will not need to carry any independent directors on its board: with Musk’s voting majority, no one without a direct personal or financial interest in the company is required. For comparison, Mark Zuckerberg holds around 60% voting control of Meta, itself a dual-class structure, but that figure sits well below Musk’s position at SpaceX.
Already operating within Musk’s broader corporate network, SpaceX has acquired his startup xAI, which itself acquired the social media platform X in 2025. Musk had bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.
A major payday for early backers
The listing is delivering substantial returns to long-standing investors. According to TechCrunch, Antonio Gracias, founder and CEO of Valor Management, will receive 503.4 million shares through the listing, putting the value of his position at nearly $68 billion at the IPO price. At the $150 opening price, that figure moves considerably higher.
Tom Mueller, who was the first official employee of SpaceX and is now the founder of Impulse Space, told the BBC that it was “unbelievable” to see what the company has become. Mueller recalled the early days, when SpaceX’s first rocket engine exploded, when another crashed before the company finally achieved a successful orbital launch in 2008. “It’s just been an incredible ride,” he said. Mueller left SpaceX in 2020 and maintains a considerable financial interest in the firm.
Retail interest and the wider IPO market
Interest from individual investors is expected to be high. Peta Cooper, 43, a copywriter from Cornwall who grew up in California and already holds a portfolio in tech and crypto firms, plans to invest around £750 in SpaceX shares. “It’s really exciting. I really love the space industry,” she said, adding that she expects some short-term volatility but plans to hold the stock long-term. “I plan to keep it in my portfolio and let it grow.”
The SpaceX IPO record listing is being watched as a test case for other companies carrying private valuations nearing $1 trillion, including Anthropic and OpenAI. Both have said they are preparing to go public, likely this year. With trading now under way and the greenshoe allocation already exercised, the structure of that historic raise is now set, even as the share price itself continues to move.
