Space Exploration Technologies Corp (NASDAQ: SPCX) made an immediate impact on Wall Street after completing the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history.
The SpaceX share price closed its first session at US$160.95, which was 19.22% above the US$135 IPO price.
The stock opened at US$150 and climbed as high as US$176.52 before giving back some of those gains during afternoon trade.
By the closing bell, SpaceX was valued at around US$2.1 trillion.
That was also enough to push Elon Musk's estimated wealth above US$1 trillion, making him the first person to reach the milestone.
The IPO has delivered an early win for investors who received shares in the offer. Anyone buying now, however, is paying a much higher price after just one day of trading.
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The biggest IPO in history
SpaceX sold around 555.6 million shares at US$135 each, raising US$75 billion before costs.
That made it the largest IPO on record and valued the company at roughly US$1.77 trillion before trading began.
Demand was well above the number of shares available, with the offer more than 4 times oversubscribed.
Retail investors were allocated around 20% of the float, which was unusually high for a listing of this size.
The company also gave its underwriters an option to buy another 83.3 million shares. If exercised in full, the total amount raised could climb above US$86 billion.
Why investors are excited
It's important to note that SpaceX is no longer being valued as just a rocket company.
Starlink is already a major part of the business, providing satellite internet services across a growing number of countries.
The company also owns xAI and is pouring money into artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Its longer-term plans include developing data centres in orbit, although the technology and economics are still largely unproven.
SpaceX generated US$18.7 billion of revenue in 2025, but recorded a net loss of US$4.9 billion as spending climbed.
This explains why the US$2.1 trillion valuation has been attracting so much attention of late.
Investors are betting that Starlink will keep growing, Starship will eventually become commercially viable, and SpaceX can turn its AI operations into another major source of revenue.
And while those ambitions are enormous, they'll require a huge amount of capital and could take years to produce significant profits.
Should you buy SpaceX shares?
Friday's impressive rally shows there is no shortage of interest in SpaceX.
However, investors buying at US$160.95 are already paying almost 20% more than those who received shares in the IPO.
That's a significant premium for a company that is still losing money and expects to spend heavily on Starlink, Starship, and AI infrastructure.
Musk also retains strong voting control through SpaceX's share structure, which gives ordinary investors limited influence over major decisions.
There may also be more selling once lock-up restrictions expire and early investors are allowed to reduce their holdings.
SpaceX has some of the biggest growth plans on the market, but its valuation already assumes many of them will succeed.
I would be inclined to let the excitement settle before considering the shares at these levels.
