Key Points:
- SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq Friday under ticker SPCX at $135 per share, raising $75 billion — 2.5 times larger than Saudi Aramco's record and the biggest IPO in capital markets history
- The stock surged 19% on its first day of trading, closing at $160.95 after hitting an intraday high of $176.52, vaulting SpaceX to a $2.1 trillion market cap
- SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in 2025 revenue but has never turned a profit, posting a $4.9 billion net loss last year and a $4.28 billion loss in Q1 2026 alone
- The company absorbed Elon Musk's AI venture xAI in February — a unit that lost $6.4 billion on just $3.2 billion in revenue in 2025
- Musk retains 42% of SpaceX equity and 85% of voting power; his combined stakes in SpaceX and Tesla pushed his net worth past $1 trillion, making him the world's first trillionaire
The Biggest IPO in History Had a Blockbuster First Day
On Friday, SpaceX opened for trading on the Nasdaq under ticker SPCX and immediately became the largest public offering the capital markets have ever seen. At $135 per share, the company raised $75 billion — nearly triple the $29 billion Saudi Aramco generated in 2019, the previous record. The implied valuation at the IPO price: $1.77 trillion.
Then the stock surged 19%.
Shares opened at $150 — already 11% above the offering price — and within two hours had rocketed to an intraday high of $176.52. Profit-taking pulled the stock back to around $158 by mid-afternoon before a late recovery pushed the close to $160.95. After-hours trading added another 3.5%, reaching $166.76. More than 500 million shares changed hands — the most actively traded IPO debut in history. At Friday's close, SpaceX's market cap stood at roughly $2.1 trillion, the sixth-largest publicly traded company in the United States.
What SpaceX Actually Looks Like
The S-1 filing gave the public its first full look at a company that had operated in financial secrecy for more than two decades.
Total 2025 revenue hit $18.7 billion, driven by three segments. Starlink, the satellite internet constellation, generated $11.4 billion — roughly 61% of total revenue. The Space segment, covering launch services and NASA crew missions, contributed $4 billion. And xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence company that merged into SpaceX in February, added $3.2 billion.
But the cost side tells a different story. SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.9 billion in 2025. The xAI division alone lost $6.4 billion on $3.2 billion in revenue — spending roughly $3 for every $1 it earned. In Q1 2026, SpaceX reported a net loss of $4.28 billion, with xAI's capital expenditures hitting $7.7 billion in a single quarter. The accumulated deficit on SpaceX's balance sheet: $41.3 billion. Total long-term debt: $29.1 billion.
The Starlink Engine
Starlink remains SpaceX's most compelling business. Subscribers surged from 2.3 million in 2023 to 8.9 million by end of 2025, reaching 10.3 million by March 2026. That growth is extraordinary by any standard.
But average revenue per user is moving the wrong direction. Monthly ARPU has declined from $99 in 2023 to $66 at the end of Q1 2026 — a 33% drop as Starlink expands into lower-income markets. SpaceX is adding subscribers fast, but each new subscriber is worth less than the last.
The xAI Problem
Elon Musk's decision to merge xAI into SpaceX before going public was one of the most scrutinized moves in recent corporate history. The deal valued xAI at $250 billion — roughly 584 times its annualized revenue.
Musk has signaled that spending will continue as xAI builds out data centers to compete with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. For investors, xAI introduces a new risk dimension: SpaceX was already an ambitious bet on rocket reusability and satellite internet. Adding a money-losing AI company that burns billions per quarter makes the financial picture considerably more complex.
The Structure of Control
Perhaps the most important detail in the S-1 is the governance structure. Elon Musk retains 42% of SpaceX's equity and 85% of voting power. The company has stated it does not expect to pay dividends "in the foreseeable future." Only about 5% of total shares float freely after the IPO.
Public investors are buying a minority economic stake with virtually no governance influence. That structure isn't unusual — Meta and Alphabet have similar setups — but at $2.1 trillion with no profits, the trust premium is enormous.
What Happened to the Rest of the Market
SpaceX's IPO had a gravitational pull — but it cut both ways. In the days before the listing, space stocks rallied: Virgin Galactic surged 13%, AST SpaceMobile gained nearly 7%, and Rocket Lab climbed 6%.
On Friday itself, however, the gravity reversed. Capital rotated into SpaceX, and competitors paid the price. Rocket Lab and Redwire both fell sharply, and the Procure Space ETF (UFO) dropped 7%. SpaceX didn't lift the sector — it absorbed it.
The broader market held up well. With Middle East tensions easing after President Trump canceled planned strikes on Iran, the Dow rose 0.7%, the S&P 500 added 0.5%, and the Nasdaq edged up 0.3%.
What It Means for Investors
SpaceX's first day tells us something important about where the market stands in mid-2026. Investors made SpaceX's IPO four times oversubscribed at a $1.77 trillion valuation — and then bid the stock 19% higher once it started trading.
At roughly 113 times trailing revenue, with no profits, mounting AI losses, and a governance structure that concentrates power in one person, SpaceX is the ultimate bet on vision over fundamentals. Starlink's growth is real. The launch business is unrivaled. But the xAI merger, declining ARPU, and $41 billion accumulated deficit all suggest the gap between ambition and profitability remains wide.
The biggest IPO in history arrived on Friday. The market's first-day verdict: extraordinary company, extraordinary price — and enough momentum to carry the day. Whether that momentum can outlast the fundamentals is the trillion-dollar question ahead.
Related Reading: SPCX: Buy now or wait?
It's the biggest IPO in history...
Should you buy in now – or wait for a dip?
According to my colleague Joel Litman, who called AMD before it rose as much as 7,100%...
The best answer is: neither.
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The biggest chance to profit is happening completely outside of SPCX itself.
It's tied to a hidden project at SpaceX – which has nothing to do with space... but could soon be worth 100 times more than SpaceX's regular launch business.
To learn more about the new SpaceX division already live right now across the American south...
Click here to see a much better way to potentially profit from the SPCX IPO – without touching the stock.
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