$1.77 Trillion! SpaceX Prices Largest-Ever IPO at $135 Per Share
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SpaceX set its IPO price at $135 per share, implying a $1.77 trillion valuation and a $74.4 billion raise — surpassing Saudi Aramco's 2019 record to become the largest IPO ever, and resetting the anchor for how mega-cap tech companies come to market.
How big is a $1.77 trillion IPO, really?
SpaceX aims to raise $74.4 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.77 trillion, topping Saudi Aramco's ~$1.7 trillion IPO record from 2019.
Renaissance Capital strategist Matthew Kennedy said the raise is "roughly equal to the entire U.S. IPO market over the past two years."
This means → one company's single offering matches two years of combined American IPO volume — the market's appetite for mega-cap tech assets has entered a new order of magnitude.
Why could Musk bypass Wall Street's standard playbook?
A conventional IPO sets a price range first — banks and institutional investors negotiate back and forth before landing on a final price. SpaceX skipped that step entirely; Musk announced a single fixed price of $135.
Musk controls over 85% of shareholder voting power through supervoting shares. The shares on offer represent just 4.2% of total equity.
In plain terms = the company barely needs to court outside investors — it is selling a tiny slice, and voting control stays firmly in Musk's hands, so he sets the price on his own terms.
Revenue is growing — but so are losses. Where is the money going?
Last year's revenue hit $18.7 billion, up 33% year-on-year. Yet the company swung to a loss of over $4.9 billion, compared with a $791 million profit in 2024.
This means → SpaceX is in a deliberate "burn cash, build scale" phase — AI compute infrastructure, rocket upgrades, and satellite constellation expansion are all running in parallel, and near-term profit has been intentionally sacrificed.
Proceeds will fund AI compute buildout, launch-facility and rocket upgrades, satellite network expansion, and repayment of a $20 billion bridge loan.
What does this mean for Musk's personal wealth?
At $135 per share, Musk's roughly 50% stake is worth over $75.2 billion.
He is already the world's richest person. A significant post-listing rally could make him the first individual with a net worth exceeding one trillion dollars.
The prospectus discloses, however, that some of Musk's shares are locked until the company hits specific operational milestones — this reflects that going public does not mean he can cash out immediately.
Anthropic and OpenAI are lining up — what does this wave signal?
Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO earlier this week. OpenAI is expected to file within weeks. Both carry valuations near $1 trillion.
Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens said he "would not be surprised to see the record broken more than once," noting that "a trillion-dollar company going public was once unheard of — it now seems almost routine."
This means → SpaceX is not an outlier but the lead runner in a full wave of mega-cap tech IPOs — the market is redefining what "large listing" means.
After the listing, what is the real test?
SpaceX is expected to join major market indices within weeks of listing. Index-tracking funds — passive vehicles that must buy constituents in proportion to their weight — will generate mechanical buying demand.
In plain terms = during the index-inclusion phase, a wave of "must-buy" capital will flow in and push the stock price higher in the short term.
But once inclusion is complete and lock-up periods expire, whether fundamentals can support the offer price becomes the real proving point — losses are still widening, and the long-term narrative (orbital data centers, lunar factories, crewed Mars missions) remains far from delivery.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.