SpaceX soared on its debut as a publicly traded company, quickly rising to $211 per share after opening on the Nasdaq—about 11% above the $135 IPO price set the day before. The stock climbed as high as $176 during the session, briefly lifting the company’s market value to nearly $2.3 trillion, before closing at $160.95, a 19% gain. The sharp increase came as no surprise. According to Bloomberg, the company’s IPO was oversubscribed by 4,003 times, leaving many institutional investors without allocations and prompting them to purchase shares on the open market. Demand for SpaceX is further amplified by its extremely small float, with only around 4% of shares available for public trading while early investors and employees retain the remainder. SpaceX also successfully persuaded several indexes (such as the Nasdaq 100) to revise their inclusion criteria. The company is set to be added to those indexes in just days rather than months, which will boost demand for SpaceX stock ahead of automatic purchases by major institutions and funds. Robinhood reported “record-breaking” traffic on its trading platform Friday, in the hours following SpaceX’s historic public markets debut. The listing also represents one of the largest payouts in venture capital history. Founders Fund, which put in $600 million for a 3% ownership stake, is estimated to be sitting on more than $50 billion in gains at the $135 IPO price, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz’s investment is now worth over $10 billion, while Sequoia’s stake exceeds $20 billion. The $150 debut made founder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The New York Times says that roughly 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are set to become millionaires, with about 400 of them becoming centimillionaires. This article was originally published at 11 a.m. The article has been updated with a new share price and additional details. Please note that we may earn a small commission when you buy through links in our articles.
