SpaceX prices IPO at $135, becoming the largest in history

SpaceX has officially confirmed it has raised $75 billion from the sale of its shares to underwriters, pricing 555.6 million shares at $135 each. This makes the American company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) the largest in history, easily surpassing the previous record set by Saudi Aramco during its 2019 public markets debut, which raised $24.9 billion. Underwriters are set to begin marketing the company on the Nasdaq stock exchange Friday, with active trading scheduled to begin tomorrow.

The offering attracted four times the available shares, according to Bloomberg. SpaceX tested its share price with investors before its official roadshow—a series of meetings with potential investors—began, the Financial Times reported. If the sale remains oversubscribed, underwriters have an option to bring an additional 83.3 million shares to market, which would raise an additional $11 billion. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid, a crypto betting market offering synthetic exposure, currently prices the shares at $167. This suggests that market participants expect a 20% IPO pop—an increase in share price on the first day of trading—when active trading begins.

The deal is set to make CEO and major shareholder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The listing also delivers significant windfalls to early investors and the roughly 400 venture capitalists who backed the company during its two decades as a private entity, a period in which it raised about $40 billion in private capital. Additionally, a massive pool of smaller investors who backed SpaceX via Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)—investment structures used to pool capital—are set to see their initial capital multiply, though the complexities of these vehicles mean some may not know the exact magnitude of their gains for months.

Key individual shareholdings in the company include:

• Elon Musk: Owns just under 850 million Class A shares (which carry 1 vote per share) and is entitled to 5.6 billion Class B shares (which carry 10 votes per share).
• Antonio Gracias: The founder and CEO of Valor Management will receive 503.4 million shares, putting the value of his position at nearly $68 billion at the IPO price.
• Luke Nosek: The board member and investor owns 33 million shares.
• Gwynne Shotwell: The Chief Operating Officer (COO) holds nearly 12.6 million shares.

Why it matters

SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO marks a massive shift in capital markets, testing whether the American company’s engineering roadmap can justify its valuation.