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Shares of SpaceX surged on their market debut, opening at $150 against an IPO price of $135 and later climbing to $164, propelling the Elon Musk-led company to become the sixth-largest U.S. firm by market capitalisation.
The IPO saw massive interest from both retail and institutional investors as Musk prepares to take the AI battle to space with his ambitious plans to make orbital data centres. SpaceX raised USD75 billion from the public by selling nearly 556 million shares priced at USD135 at a valuation of USD1.77 trillion. With the public listing, SpaceX has joined an elite club of companies having a valuation of over a trillion dollars. SpaceX also became the maiden US company to list with more than a trillion-dollar valuation. Earlier, the company's president Gwynne Shotwell rang the market opening bell with Musk participating in the event virtually from Texas. The SpaceX stock is trading under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq, giving an opportunity to individuals to freely trade in the company's shares. The rocket, satellite and AI company, which was started by Musk 24 years ago, is at the frontier of space exploration with ambitions ranging from multiplanetary civilization to data centres in space. "SpaceX is about taking fiction out of science fiction," Musk said during the opening bell ceremony. Musk added that other companies were not working on technology that would "make life multiplanetary". Musk said that he was not sure of SpaceX's success but wanted to give it a try. "I gave SpaceX less than 10% chance of succeeding at all. To be clear, in fact, Itold people this. I said, look, we're probably going to fail, but you know, should give it a try bvecause if we don;y, if there's not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space-beating civilisation," Musk said while celebrating the market debut of SpaceX with fellow colleagues in Texas. With the blockbuster listing, Musk has become the first person on the planet to become a trillionaire. Majority of Musk's wealth comes from his massive shareholding in SpaceX in which he also holds dominant voting rights that allows him to steer the company in the direction he wats. "Founded in 2002, SpaceX is the only company building the integrated hardware and software infrastructure of the future across space, connectivity, and AI," SpaceX said in its prospectus. The AI unit xAI was founded in 2023 and acquired by SpaceX in early 2026. The company is rapidly scaling its compute infrastructure and boasts one of the largest compute clusters - COLOSSUS abd COLOSSUS II. The company is also planning Terafab facility, a chip manufacturing initiative with Tesla and Intel that aims to further extend the vertical integration to chip design and manufacturing. Musk upended the norms in IPO pricing by choosing a fixed price rather than opting for a range that lets gauging of investor interest at different price points. Musk chose a take-it-or-leave-it approach for the SpaceX IPO relying on the legion of supporters to back SpaceX just as they did to Tesla. SpaceX will soon be a part of Nasdaq 100 index as the stock exchange changed its rules in March for speedier entry of megacap listings. The inclusion will automatically make SpaceX a part of many passive index funds indirectly making the company a part of many individuals' portfolio. The SpaceX IPO has also come as a boon for thousands of current and former employees by making them millionaires. The SpaceX debut is happening at a pivotal moment for AI as the wave sweeps stock markets lifting many AI-linked shares to record highs. The listing will also be a test that will gauge investor appetite for upcoming big-ticket AI listings with Anthropic and OpenAI slated to go public later this year. (ANI)
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