Elon Musk's SpaceX has made its stock market debut in a record initial public offering (IPO), with shares opening more than 11% higher at $150 on Friday against an issue price of $135, valuing the company at just under $2 trillion.
The opening valuation makes Musk - through his stakes in SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla - the first person in history to hold a trillion-dollar fortune, at least on paper.
SpaceX, known among other things for its Starlink satellite internet service, sold around 555.6 million shares at the issue price of $135, raising $75 billion in the process.
The previous record for the largest IPO was held by Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco, which raised just over $29 billion in 2019.
At the issue price alone, SpaceX was already valued at $1.77 trillion, more than Facebook parent company Meta. At the opening price, the company ranks among the most valuable US firms, behind only Nvidia, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon.
Nvidia, boosted by the AI boom, holds the top spot with a current valuation of just under $5 trillion.
