The short answer. On 12 June 2026, SpaceX became a public company under the ticker SPCX, raising about $75 billion — the largest IPO in history, roughly triple the previous record. The stock was priced at a fixed $135, opened at $150, briefly touched $176.52, and closed its first day at $160.95, up 19%, pushing the company’s market value past $2 trillion. That number is the entire story: you are being asked to pay a record price for a company that lost $4.9 billion last year. Starlink is a genuine cash machine; the rocket business is the best in the world; the newly bolted-on AI arm is bleeding money. Independent analysts at Morningstar peg fair value at less than half the IPO price. None of what follows is investment advice — but if you are weighing SPCX, the float mechanics in the fourth section are the part most first-day buyers are missing.
What actually happened on 12 June
SpaceX didn’t run a normal IPO. Instead of letting bankers set a price range and gauge demand, Elon Musk fixed the price at $135 a share before the roadshow even started — a deliberate signal that he, not Wall Street, was setting the terms. Demand still ran roughly four times oversubscribed, and an unusually large slice (low-20s to a targeted 30%, versus the usual 5–10%) was steered toward everyday retail investors through brokers like Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi and E-Trade.
| SpaceX IPO (SPCX) | Detail |
|---|---|
| Listing date | 12 June 2026, Nasdaq |
| Offer price | $135.00 (fixed, no range) |
| Shares sold | 555.6 million (+ ~83m greenshoe) |
| Amount raised | ~$75 billion — largest IPO ever |
| IPO valuation | ~$1.77 trillion |
| First-day open | $150.00 |
| First-day high | $176.52 (+31% intraday) |
| First-day close | $160.95 (+19%) |
| Valuation at close | above $2 trillion |
The first-day pop did something no listing has done before: on paper, it lifted Musk’s stake to a level several outlets calculated made him the world’s first trillionaire. The raise alone — about three times Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record — tells you how far outside normal market history this sits.
What you’re actually buying: three businesses in one
SPCX is not a pure rocket stock, and it is not a pure Starlink stock. The IPO prospectus revealed, for the first time, a company with three very different engines bolted together. For 2025 the consolidated picture was $18.7 billion in revenue, a $4.9 billion net loss, but positive adjusted EBITDA of about $6.6 billion — a company that generates real cash from operations while still printing a GAAP loss.
| Segment | 2025 revenue | Operating result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity (Starlink) | $11.4B (~61%) | +$4.4B profit | 10.3m subscribers by March 2026 — the profit engine |
| Space (launch) | $4.09B | −$657m | Falcon + Starship; dominant global launch share |
| AI (xAI) | $3.2B | −$6.35B | Acquired all-stock in Feb 2026; the reason the group is in the red |
Read that table twice, because it is the crux of the whole investment case. Starlink is the business — 61% of revenue and the only large segment turning an operating profit. The launch business is strategically dominant but barely break-even on an operating basis. And the AI segment, xAI, which SpaceX absorbed in an all-stock deal in February 2026, lost $6.35 billion — single-handedly dragging the entire conglomerate from profit into loss.
Why the valuation is the entire debate
Here is where careful investors and the first-day crowd part ways. Morningstar initiated coverage in June 2026 with a fair-value estimate of about $780 billion — less than half the ~$1.77 trillion IPO valuation. Analyst Nicolas Owens put it bluntly: “We believe the company is significantly overvalued, and investors will have the opportunity to buy in at a more attractive price following the IPO.”
The way Morningstar gets there is worth understanding, because it isn’t hand-waving. Its discounted-cash-flow model values the launch and Starlink businesses together at roughly $611 billion, then probability-weights several scenarios for the unproven AI arm at about $170 billion — totalling around $780 billion. Critically, analysts flagged xAI as a “material threat of value destruction,” with an “economic moat indeterminate.” In plain terms: the market is assigning hundreds of billions of dollars to a business that is currently incinerating cash and whose competitive advantage is unproven.
The bull case is not crazy, and it deserves a fair hearing. Starlink is adding subscribers fast and throws off real profit; SpaceX’s launch monopoly is the kind of moat investors dream about; and Musk’s track record at Tesla taught a generation of investors not to bet against the long-dated story. Buyers are paying for optionality — Starship, global connectivity, defence contracts, and an AI lottery ticket. The bear case is simply that you are paying a $1.8 trillion price for $18.7 billion of revenue and a net loss, and that the AI piece inflating the headline is the weakest part.
The retail catch most first-day buyers are missing
This is the part that rarely makes the headlines and matters most. A SpaceX-sized IPO floats only a small fraction of total shares at first. That tiny public float is exactly why a wildly priced stock can still trade up on day one: there simply aren’t many shares available, so a rush of demand has nowhere to go but up.
The risk arrives later. Early employees and private backers hold the vast majority of stock under lock-up agreements that bar them from selling for a set period after listing. When those lock-ups expire, a large volume of shares can flood into the market at once — and supply that size tends to push prices back toward fundamental value. Several analysts have made the same point: the smart move may be to let the hype settle and the lock-ups roll off, rather than chase the open. That is why Morningstar framed the IPO as not the best entry point for ordinary investors, and why commentators flagged particular caution for anyone gaining exposure through a retirement account.
What investors are actually saying
Sentiment on the ground is split in a revealing way. Plenty of retail investors scrambled to get an allocation regardless of price — many citing Musk’s name and his record at Tesla and Starlink as the reason, full stop. At the same time, experienced investors were openly uneasy: one described the valuation as “really, really aggressive,” and the blunter version circulating among traders was simply that the number was “stupid.” Both things are true at once — enormous brand pull colliding with a price that, on the fundamentals, is hard to defend. The lesson isn’t which camp is right; it’s that enthusiasm and valuation are pulling in opposite directions, and on a first-day stock that gap is where the risk lives.
How to buy SPCX stock
Now that it’s public, buying SpaceX is mechanically simple: SPCX trades on the Nasdaq, so any brokerage that offers US-listed shares — Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi, E-Trade and most international brokers with US-market access — can fill an order. Before the IPO, the only routes were private-market platforms or funds that held a SpaceX stake; those indirect plays now matter less, since you can own the stock directly. The harder question isn’t how to buy it — it’s when, and at what price, given the lock-up overhang above.
SpaceX IPO FAQ
What is SpaceX’s stock ticker? SPCX, on the Nasdaq.
How much did the SpaceX IPO raise? About $75 billion, the largest IPO ever — roughly triple the prior record.
What is SpaceX worth after the IPO? It priced at roughly $1.77 trillion and closed its first day valued above $2 trillion.
Is SpaceX profitable? Not at the group level — it posted a $4.9 billion net loss in 2025. Starlink is profitable; the xAI arm is deeply loss-making and is what tips the whole company into the red.
Is SPCX overvalued? By Morningstar’s estimate, yes — its $780 billion fair value is less than half the IPO price. Bulls disagree, pointing to Starlink’s growth and SpaceX’s launch dominance. Reasonable analysts land on both sides.
Should I buy it? That’s your call, not ours. The factual picture: a record price, a real cash engine in Starlink, a cash-burning AI arm, and a lock-up structure that could pressure the price months from now.
Figures and valuations are as of 13 June 2026 and move constantly — verify the live SPCX quote before acting. This article is information, not financial advice; SleekDrops is not a financial adviser. Investing carries risk, including the loss of capital.
