SpaceX stock soars in debut and makes Elon Musk the first trillionaire

Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after shares of his rocket company SpaceX soared in Wall Street’s biggest initial public offering of stock. Shares in SpaceX jumped more than 19% after opening for trading in June, a sign that investors are looking past the billions the company is losing and instead betting that its massive investments in satellites, orbital data centers, and artificial intelligence will pay off in the future. SpaceX opened around midday at $150 a share, then rose to around $168 before finishing the day just below $161. That price gave the company a market value of $2.1 trillion, making it the sixth-largest public U.S. company—larger even than its founder and CEO’s other big business, the electric vehicle maker Tesla. Between his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, where he is also CEO, Musk is now worth an estimated $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes. Musk says SpaceX, founded in 2002, is going public now because it needs money to fund its ambitions of putting satellites and data centers in space and eventually establishing a colony of people on Mars. He marked the opening of trading on Nasdaq by joining a ceremonial bell ringing from Starbase, the South Texas home of SpaceX. He reiterated his lofty goals “to make life multiplanetary.” “Not just a few astronauts; I mean, literally, you,” Musk said. “Whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars, and ultimately beyond.” Known for his technological breakthroughs, as well as wild claims and missed deadlines, Musk was able to whip up enthusiasm for the Initial Public Offering (IPO). The typical company going public has seen a 7% jump in its first day of trading, from 1980 through 2025, according to Jay Ritter, a professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business. Institutional and retail investors alike jumped at the opportunity to buy a piece of the company at $135 per share before trading began. The $75 billion in proceeds SpaceX raised easily topped the previous record IPO from oil giant Saudi Aramco in 2019. This article was provided by The Associated Press.