SpaceX launches on Nasdaq in record-breaking IPO – valuation exceeds $1.8 trillion

The shares of the space, satellite, and AI company of Tesla boss Elon Musk began trading on the US technology exchange Nasdaq at $150. This was about 11 percent above the issue price of $135. Higher prices were also recorded during trading: the shares most recently climbed to around $172, nearly reaching the peak of the pre-market indications, resulting in a valuation of currently $2.19 trillion. At the start, the company had a total valuation of $1.77 trillion.

Price performance and valuation

Elon Musk, who founded the space startup in 2002, is both CEO and Chairman of the Board, thus combining management and control functions. With his voting shares, Musk holds more than 80 percent of the voting shares and thus retains sole control of the company. Since Musk only brought a five-percent stake in SpaceX to the stock market, the majority of the proceeds flowed to existing shareholders.

The IPO made Musk, already the world's richest person, the first trillionaire. Forbes valued his fortune at $1.1 trillion. In the course of the IPO, it also became public for the first time who holds which other executive positions at SpaceX – and they are experienced individuals, not puppets.

Elon Musk as the first dollar-trillionaire

With the jump to a market value of around $1.77 trillion, SpaceX was from the start worth more than, for example, the Facebook group Meta, which currently weighs in at $1.45 trillion. SpaceX also left the electric car maker Tesla behind. The company thus immediately becomes the seventh most valuable listed company in the USA.

In the ranking of the most valuable US companies, however, SpaceX still trails significantly behind the heavyweights of the industry: the undisputed frontrunner remains the AI chip giant NVIDIA with nearly $5 trillion, followed by Google parent company Alphabet and the tech giant Apple with values above the $4 trillion mark. The software company Microsoft follows with a value of $2.88 trillion. SpaceX, however, is already coming dangerously close to the online retailer and technology giant Amazon, currently at $2.54 trillion.

Starlink as the key revenue driver

The company also includes the satellite network Starlink, which is by far the biggest money-maker. Starlink generated around eleven billion US dollars in revenue in 2025 and is so far the only segment that turns a profit. The satellite network now has more than ten million subscribers and has so far brought around 9,600 satellites into space to provide internet to regions without mobile networks.

The rocket division, which is fundamental to the satellite business, on the other hand, does not earn any money on its own. Due to billions in investments in artificial intelligence, SpaceX most recently posted losses. A company that made almost five billion US dollars in net loss in the past year. Spending on artificial intelligence at SpaceX now far exceeds traditional investments in rocket manufacturing.

High valuation despite billions in losses

In the prospectus, SpaceX reported revenue of $18.7 billion for the previous year. The ratio between the target valuation and the company's current revenue is 96 times – mature technology companies otherwise reach a factor of at most 15 to 20. A sum-of-the-parts valuation of the company would be around $600 billion, roughly one third of the current value.

"Was die Fundamentaldaten angeht, sind die Investoren ihrer Zeit voraus", said Amanda Lyons, head of the research department at hedge fund Energy Group Capital. But betting against the high valuations of Elon Musk's companies has been a losing proposition for a decade, the expert conceded. Shaun Maguire, partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, emphasized: "Der Börsengang von SpaceX signalisiert den Übergang von einer software-dominierten zu einer hardware-dominierten Welt."

Financial experts assumed that SpaceX's market debut could draw capital away from other investment assets. Financial experts therefore warned investors about risks when buying shares. The British magazine The Economist diagnosed an "unwürdige SpaceX-Manie" on Wall Street and spoke of decorative spacecraft with which America's investment bankers adorned their reception areas.

Risk warnings and expert opinions

Market observer Stephen Innes had stressed before the start of SpaceX trading that a market valuation of over two trillion dollars at the close of the first trading day would provide a meaningful valuation template for the next mega-IPOs in the AI sector. Waiting in the wings are the creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, and its rival Anthropic.

What investors are really buying is set out in the 277-page prospectus. In the course of the IPO, it did become public for the first time who holds which other executive positions at SpaceX. The company, headquartered in Texas, has lucrative contracts with the US space agency NASA for its reusable launch vehicles. Over the past five years, SpaceX received around six billion dollars from government NASA and defense contracts.

SpaceX is what is called a "Story Stock" on Wall Street: not a normal industrial company valued according to classic metrics, but an investment in a vision. The promised sources of revenue range from the global broadband network to AI data centers in orbit to government contracts from NASA to the Pentagon. SpaceX plays a key role in the US space program with its rockets.

Since the merger with Musk's AI company xAI in February, the AI model Grok and the platform X have also become part of the corporate group. Musk had founded the AI company xAI in 2023 and integrated the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in 2025. The best-known product of xAI is the AI chatbot Grok, which is controversial because of its potential for deepfakes.

Corporate structure and vision

The central rocket is "Starship", the reusable heavy-lift rocket – the company's entire expansion plan rests on it. Only if it can be operated reliably on a sustained basis does the rest work. And at the latest when it comes to a flight toward Mars, the question of in-orbit refueling remains, and it too is still unanswered.

Among the stated corporate goals are settling space, enabling interplanetary life, and building cities on Mars. Musk said he wanted to make 'Star Trek' a reality. In another goal, SpaceX formulated creating a "nach Wahrheit strebende KI" powered by the sun in order to "carry the light of consciousness to the stars." At the headquarters in Texas, Musk spoke himself on the day of the IPO about possible missions to Mars and beyond.

The IPO was accompanied by a number of major investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and more than 20 other institutions. Musk was Trump's largest campaign supporter, but was not at the Nasdaq in New York on the day of the IPO, instead being at the SpaceX headquarters in Texas. In New York at Times Square, around a hundred people gathered in front of large screens showing SpaceX advertising, some dressed as astronauts.

The valuation of $1.8 trillion corresponded in magnitude to the entire German stock index DAX at once, according to the reports. The news was broadcast on 13.06.2026 on the Deutschlandfunk program.