SpaceX lifts off in record Wall Street debut

NEW YORK — Elon Musk's SpaceX began its first day as a public company on Wall Street on Friday after the biggest initial public offering in history, with the polarizing entrepreneur promising he will take humanity to Mars.

The blockbuster operation, which raised more than $75 billion, is expected to make Musk the world's first trillionaire and kick off a series of major IPOs by AI companies in the coming months.

The first trades — and the level of demand — were expected to be confirmed shortly after the opening of the Nasdaq market in New York.

"SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars, and ultimately beyond," Musk said at a launch event in Starbase, Texas, surrounded by staff members.

"I'm confident at this point that with the incredible team that we have here at SpaceX, that we will do that for you," Musk added.

About 100 people assembled outside the Nasdaq exchange's home in New York, where SpaceX also marked the occasion with a neon sign in Times Square reading "Building the infrastructure to the future".

Musk "sets very futuristic goals that no one else is doing, and I think that has got a lot of people excited", said Sarin Sio, of financial company Dovetail, who had come to the Nasdaq headquarters.

The company priced more than 555 million shares at $135 each in a filing with the US markets regulator on Thursday, placing SpaceX in the top 10 of Wall Street's biggest companies with a valuation of just under $1.8 trillion — ahead of Tesla, Facebook-owner Meta and Walmart.

Options for nearly 83 million additional shares could push the total above $86 billion.

Cofounded by Musk in 2002, the rocket startup has since expanded into a major satellite operator and has also folded in Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, which includes the social media platform X.

The conglomerate will trade under the ticker symbol "SPCX", and all eyes will be on how Wall Street absorbs the offering.

SpaceX is the first out of the gates among leading AI giants eyeing public markets, with OpenAI and Anthropic both recently filing initial documents with regulators.

Bloomberg reported that the offering was more than four times oversubscribed. Demand among retail investors — for whom 20 percent of shares were reserved — was also reported to be high.

The IPO is expected to mint thousands of new millionaires and several billionaires, with former and current employees — and a long list of investors — from the company's nearly quarter-century history looking to cash in.

The company's financials are giving some on Wall Street pause, as the valuation largely depends on Musk delivering on promises worthy of science fiction, including putting data centers in space and putting humans on Mars.

Shen Meng, director of Chanson & Co, a boutique investment bank, said SpaceX's IPO will inject a strong impetus to the development of global commercial aerospace industry.

"Under Elon Musk's leadership, SpaceX has already achieved a series of successes. Now, leveraged by capital markets, it will further integrate its capabilities in reusable satellite launches, global low-orbit satellite communication networks, and AI synergies, thereby building even more prominent competitive advantages."

Li Chao, an independent analyst who has been closely following the global commercial aerospace industry for more than eight years, said "SpaceX already stands as the world's best-performing space company. Its IPO would provide a crucial valuation benchmark for commercial space firms globally, especially those in China."

A string of Chinese peers are planning for IPOs. For instance,the Chinese private rocket company LandSpace's application for IPO on the STAR Market has already been accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

But Li also cautioned against traditional profit-based valuation methods. "Commercial aerospace companies such as SpaceX plough most of their profits into capital expenditure — new R&D, space computing centers, chips. Conventional metrics would distort their financial reality."

Ma Si in Haikou contributed to this story.