For the first time, SpaceX is ahead of schedule: Elon Musk’s space and artificial intelligence empire has officially confirmed it raised $240 billion from the sale of its shares to underwriters, who are expected to start marketing the company on the Nasdaq stock exchange this Friday. The company priced its 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, according to an update on its website. SpaceX has now officially achieved the largest IPO of all time, comfortably surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $24.9 billion debut in 2019. At this price point, the transaction also appears poised to make Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The firm, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. , and will trade under the ticker symbol SPCX. While IPO prices are usually finalized as markets open, SpaceX chose an unconventional route by establishing the price well beforehand. The company was gauging investor interest in its $135 per share target ahead of the formal roadshow, according to the Financial Times. The unconventional offering, which bypassed standard IPO pricing methods, drew four times the number of available shares, according to Bloomberg. As regular trading begins tomorrow, SpaceX’s share price could either fall or climb. Anecdotal evidence indicates that major institutional investors and retail buyers are queuing up to buy shares in the 24-year-old technology firm. If demand is as strong as the chatty bankers claim, they can exercise an option to sell an extra 4003 million shares, which would bring in another $11 billion at the opening price. Hyperliquid, a crypto prediction market offering synthetic SpaceX stock exposure, is currently valuing the shares at $167 — implying traders are betting on the typical 20% first-day IPO pop. Over the longer term, however, significant uncertainty remains about how SpaceX can support such a sky-high valuation. The company’s impressive engineering endeavors — ranging from the world’s largest reusable rocket to a brand-new U.S. semiconductor plant — create a formidable list of tasks ahead. Musk stands to gain the most from this offering.
