Elon Musk becomes world's first trillionaire with SpaceX market debut

• SpaceX will begin trading on Nasdaq on Friday.
• The IPO is expected to raise $75 billion.
• The company is valued at nearly $1.8 trillion.
• Investor demand for shares has been extremely strong.
• The market debut could push Elon Musk closer to trillionaire status.

Elon Musk's SpaceX confirmed on Thursday (11) that it will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday (12) after launching what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history.

According to a filing with US market regulators, the company priced more than 555 million shares at $135 each. This gives SpaceX a valuation of just under $1.8 trillion, placing it among the 10 most valuable companies on Wall Street.

The valuation is higher than that of Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla, Facebook parent Meta, and retail giant Walmart.

The IPO is expected to raise a record $75 billion. This easily surpasses the previous record set by Saudi Aramco, which raised $29.4 billion during its market debut in 2019.

The underwriters also have the option to purchase nearly 83 million additional shares. If that option is fully exercised, the total amount raised could exceed $86 billion.

SpaceX was co-founded by Musk in 2002 and has grown into one of the world's leading space and rocket companies. The company will trade under the ticker symbol "SPCX" and will also have a parallel listing on Nasdaq Texas.

Investors and market analysts around the world will be watching closely to see how the stock performs during its first day of trading. Because of the company's size, the offering could have a major impact on global financial markets.

SpaceX is expected to be the first major technology and artificial intelligence company to go public among a group of highly valued firms considering stock market listings.

OpenAI and Anthropic are also expected to enter public markets in the future after recently filing paperwork with regulators.

As is common for major stock market debuts, company executives are expected to ring the opening bell on Friday to mark the start of trading. The event will take place in New York's Times Square, home of the Nasdaq exchange.

The IPO also includes Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI and the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk combined those businesses with SpaceX earlier this year.

The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. More than 20 banks are participating in the deal.

According to Bloomberg, the IPO attracted extremely strong demand. Major banks and financial institutions reportedly sought more than four times the number of shares available.

Interest from individual investors has also been high.

More than 20 percent of the shares have been reserved for retail investors. This is a much larger share than is usually allocated in major IPOs and gives many of Musk's supporters an opportunity to invest in the company.

The success of the offering largely depends on investor confidence in Musk and his vision for the future.

Musk will continue to serve as chief executive officer, chief technology officer, and chairman of the board of the newly public company.

The IPO is also expected to create significant wealth for many people connected to the company. Thousands of current and former employees, along with investors who backed SpaceX over the years, could see substantial gains from the listing.

However, some people on Wall Street remain cautious about the company's valuation.

Although SpaceX has grown rapidly, many investors believe its current value depends heavily on Musk achieving ambitious goals that are still unproven. These include plans for data centers in space and sending humans to Mars using technology that has not yet been fully demonstrated.

The company reported revenue of $18.7 billion in 2025, showing strong growth.

At the same time, SpaceX remains unprofitable. The company reported a net loss of $4.9 billion.

In its filing, SpaceX made an ambitious forecast, saying it could eventually generate more than $28.5 trillion in revenue across its various markets.

The IPO could also have a major impact on Musk's personal wealth.

According to Forbes, Musk's fortune stood at $782 billion on Thursday. That amount is already nearly three times greater than the wealth of the world's second-richest person, Google co-founder Larry Page.

A successful first day of trading could make Musk the first trillionaire in history.

Not everyone views the possibility positively.

"A trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy," said Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America.

Ahead of the trading launch, activists staged a protest outside Nasdaq's offices. They displayed a giant inflatable version of Musk to draw attention to concerns about xAI's Grok chatbot and its ability to create fake sexualized images.

As SpaceX prepares for its stock market debut, investors, employees, and market observers will be watching closely to see whether the company can live up to the enormous expectations surrounding one of the most anticipated IPOs in financial history.