SpaceX share price rises by almost 20% after largest IPO ever

Shares went on sale at $150, an increase of 11% on the issue price

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SpaceX’s shares opened at $150 on Friday, an increase of 11% compared with the issue price, and ultimately ended the day almost 20% higher.

The share price initially rose by more than 30% after the opening, but later gave up part of those gains and closed at $160.95, a daily gain of 19.2%.

The space and satellite company set its IPO price at $135 per share on Thursday evening ahead of its debut on the Nasdaq, where it trades under the ticker symbol SPCX.

Some market experts expect the share to remain highly volatile in the coming days. According to Howard Chan, founder and CEO of Kurv Investment Management, sharp price swings are virtually unavoidable while the market searches for a balanced valuation.

SpaceX brought around 555.6 million shares to market, raising a record $75 billion, the largest IPO ever. In addition, the underwriting banks have what is known as a greenshoe option to sell roughly another 83 million shares if demand proves higher than expected.

According to research firm Bespoke Investment Group, this immediately made SpaceX the sixth-largest company in the United States by market capitalisation. The company would be larger than Broadcom and more than twice the size of Berkshire Hathaway. SpaceX would also be worth about $700 billion more than Tesla.

Preliminary figures from research firm Vanda Research point to exceptionally strong interest from retail investors. According to Vanda, on its first trading day SPCX was by far the most bought stock among retail investors, with net purchases more than 3.5 times higher than those of Nvidia.

In addition, the IPO was around four times oversubscribed, indicating very strong demand for the shares.

The stock market listing is also drawing criticism. Elon Musk’s wealth has exceeded $1 trillion. That is a 1 with 12 zeros. This makes Musk the first ever trillionaire. According to Oxfam Novib, Musk is now richer than the poorest 46% of the world’s population, 3.8 billion people combined. His wealth has grown by more than $550 billion in the past year. That is an average of $1 million per minute.

“A trillion dollars in the hands of a single person is not only incompatible with a healthy economy, but also with a healthy democracy. Such enormous economic power inevitably translates into political influence. The grip of the super-rich on politics and democracy is still increasing. They are richer than ever and are using their enormous fortunes ever more visibly and shamelessly to influence society and politics. Elon Musk plays a prominent role in this, partly through his own social media platform X, which is rife with misinformation and hate,” said Bram Joanknecht, economic equality expert at Oxfam Novib.

Musk’s fortune rests on significant government support, SpaceX derives a fifth of its revenue from contracts with the US federal government, although it has probably paid little to no federal income tax, thanks to a corporate tax benefit from President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

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