Bernard Condon
Updated ,first published
SpaceX jumped 11 per cent as the rocket maker’s stock opened for trading on Friday (US time). That price gives the company a market value of $US1.96 trillion ($2.78 trillion) and is enough to make chief executive Elon Musk the first-ever trillionaire.
The stock opened for trading at $US150 ($212) compared with the IPO price of $US135 ($191) per share.
With SpaceX widely viewed as a dress rehearsal for a new generation of mega-listings, market participants will also be watching for signals on investor appetite ahead of forthcoming IPOs for AI heavyweights Anthropic and OpenAI.
The stock’s performance will also be a test for the so-called “Musk premium,” which has been the force behind Tesla’s $1 trillion-plus valuation, despite coming under pressure during Musk’s active role in President Donald Trump’s administration.
The landmark listing cemented Musk’s status as the first trillionaire ever and propelled SpaceX into the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies – even though the firm posted a loss of nearly $5 billion last year and generated only a fraction of the revenue brought in by similarly valued tech giants.
Musk on Friday marked the opening of trading on Nasdaq, where the company’s shares will be listed, by joining a ceremonial bell ringing from Starbase, the South Texas home of SpaceX.
He reiterated his lofty goals “to make life multi-planetary.”
“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.”
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen rang the Nasdaq opening bell at 9.30am on Friday New York time (11.30pm Thursday AEST).
The record IPO is a culmination of Musk’s long-held ambitions in space and technology, and has stood out for rewriting Wall Street’s IPO playbook and drawing legions of retail investors into the market.
At $75 billion, the deal’s proceeds were more than double those of Saudi Aramco’s record-setting 2019 IPO.
The valuation could rise further should underwriters exercise their right to sell additional shares, a decision typically made within 30 days after the offering.
Although SpaceX may have to wait for entry into the S&P 500, its expected fast-track inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 will soon make it a major holding for passive funds and ETFs that track the index, creating a fresh source of demand for its shares.
“We have to go back 100 years to get comparable entrepreneurs. He’s a visionary unlike others, and he executes extremely well,” said Joel Shulman, chief executive of ERShares, which manages an ETF that has an exposure to SpaceX.
It will take about a month before it gets added to that index under Nasdaq’s new fast-entry rules, as opposed to a typical wait of as much as a year.
Some analysts expect SpaceX’s debut to trigger a reshuffling of investor portfolios, creating selling pressure on other technology heavyweights as funds rotate into the stock.
For all the excitement surrounding the IPO, determining what SpaceX is actually worth remains a difficult valuation exercise.
SpaceX said its market opportunity spans $28.5 trillion, a figure it called the largest in human history. With its leading position in space – the firm says its operation is responsible for more than four-fifths of the mass launched into orbit over the past three years – and revenues from Starlink, some investors said it has a strong foundation upon which to build.
John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said the best comparable to SpaceX is Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, as each has an established business and “a moonshot opportunity on the other side.”
“For Tesla, that’s things like humanoid robotics and other future applications. For SpaceX, it’s the AI business,” he said.
The hurdles at its enormous valuation include efforts by rivals such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to accelerate the commercialisation of space and pursue government contracts in a bid to unlock new markets beyond Earth. With revenue of $18.7 billion in 2025, the company’s market cap puts its price-to-revenue ratio at a lofty 94. Some analysts have already issued positive ratings on the company. Morningstar analysts earlier this month said it is more fairly valued at around $780 billion.
“This is not a name you’re buying based on fundamentals. For me, the analogy is Amazon. This was a company that changed the way we live,” said Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments. “If the stock drops to $100, that’s not ideal, but it wouldn’t change our long-term view. We want to participate.”
More to come
Reuters, AP
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