Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, stood with colleagues at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on Friday, June 12, 2026, as the company marked its first day as a public business. Within hours, the SpaceX IPO had turned one of the world’s most closely watched private companies into a $2.1 trillion public-market giant.
Shares opened around midday at $150, rose to about $168, and ended the day just below $161, according to the Associated Press. At that closing price, SpaceX shares made the company the sixth-largest public company in the United States and placed it above Tesla by market value.
The debut also transformed years of employee stock into visible wealth for current and former workers. More than 4,400 employees and former employees were expected to become millionaires, while about 400 were set to pass the $100 million mark, according to coverage tied to the New York Times account of SpaceX employee millionaires.
SpaceX Became A Market Giant In One Day
The offering raised $75 billion after investors bought in at $135 a share before trading began. That made it Wall Street’s biggest initial public offering of stock, surpassing the previous record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019.
The strong demand showed how much investors were willing to pay for SpaceX’s future, even while the company was carrying heavy losses. SpaceX lost $8.7 billion between the start of 2025 and March 31, 2026, but buyers focused on rockets, Starlink internet, orbital data-center plans, and artificial intelligence ambitions.
SpaceX was founded in 2002, and its business now includes spacecraft, launch systems, and thousands of satellites used for Starlink. Musk has tied the IPO to larger plans, including satellites, data centers in space, and the goal of establishing a human colony on Mars.
Musk joined the Nasdaq opening from Starbase, the company’s South Texas base, rather than from New York. He repeated his goal of making life “multiplanetary,” connecting the public offering to SpaceX’s long-term space plans.
Musk’s Fortune Crossed A New Line
The listing pushed Elon Musk into trillionaire territory on paper. Between his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, Forbes estimated his wealth at $1.1 trillion after the first trading day. ABC News framed the listing as the event that could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
That fortune is mostly tied to stock, not cash. Musk owns roughly four out of every 10 SpaceX shares after the offering, and financial filings cited in coverage of the IPO say he cannot sell those shares for one year.
The valuation also shifted more of Musk’s public-market profile toward SpaceX. The rocket company became more valuable than Tesla on its first trading day, even though some of its future plans still depend on “unproven technologies.”
Workers Became Millionaires On Paper
The employee windfall stood out because the gains reached beyond the founder and top executives. Stock compensation had been part of the bargain for many workers who joined SpaceX while it was private, risky, and still proving whether it could build a lasting rocket business.
About 400 workers and former workers were expected to become centimillionaires, a level of wealth usually reserved for founders or major early investors. Andrew Benson, identified as the head of Hill.com, described it as extremely rare for an IPO to create 400 people worth at least $100 million.
The gains are still paper gains unless workers sell under post-IPO rules. A public listing gives private shares a market price, but it also exposes that value to daily trading. The same shares that made employees wealthy on paper can lose value if investors change their view of the company.
Early Employees Took A Risk On SpaceX
Trevor Hise, a long-time employee and former launch engineer, became one example of how early shares could pay off. In 2011, after graduating, he chose SpaceX instead of a steadier job at General Electric, even as his parents pushed him toward the safer path.
Hise later held more than 100,000 shares. At $135 each, those shares would be worth at least $13.5 million. He was described as retired at 37 and preparing to create a philanthropic foundation with his wife.
Gavin Petit made a similar long-term bet after joining SpaceX in 2012 with an $80,000 salary. His shares were valued at $13.80 each at the time, and he chose to keep accumulating stock rather than take bonuses in cash.
That choice was not obvious when SpaceX was still dealing with failed rocket tests and fears about bankruptcy. Employees who held shares through those years were betting that the company would survive long enough for the stock to matter.
Some Workers Sold Before The Payoff
The IPO created a harder outcome for former workers who sold too soon. Some employees sold their shares before the listing because they were worn down by the pace of work or doubted that Musk would take SpaceX public. Other anecdotes described early workers trading shares away for restaurant gift cards, though that remained a rumor rather than a confirmed financial record.
Others kept their shares after leaving and were positioned to benefit from the public listing. Helvin Bacareza, who worked for two years as a global supply chain manager starting in 2020, accumulated a significant stock position before his departure and planned to hold his shares after post-IPO restrictions.
At Friday’s close, SpaceX finished just below $161 a share, giving the company a market value of about $2.1 trillion.
