CEO Gwen Shotwell and SpaceX executives ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq on June 12th, 2026.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
SpaceX shares soared on Friday as trading commenced on the Nasdaq, driving the rocket company’s valuation above $2 trillion.
The Elon Musk-led space company’s stock was last trading 23% higher in midday trading to $166 a share, putting its market value at $2.17 trillion.
“This was a successful launch no doubt about it,” said Jay Woods, chief market strategist from Freedom Capital Markets. “The public demand is there, so that’s a good thing. But now we’ll wait to see if it can hold that open price, or was it an euphoric retail crowd driving it.”
SpaceX opened at $150 per share, marking a roughly 11% gain over its $135 IPO price. But that number was off the $175 level initially shown in indications of interest to trading desks.
“You have to give it a full trading day, which will be next week,” Woods said. “The initial thoughts on the trading desks were that it could get up to $200.”
SpaceX Operations Chief Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC in an exclusive interview that she “wasn’t sure we would go public.” But she said the current moment “actually feels like the right time.”
Friday’s debut officially crowns Musk as the first trillionaire on record. The IPO is expected to mint thousands of new millionaires.
Shares of space industry stocks also tumbled in the wake of SpaceX’s debut with investors shifting focus to the IPO. Redwire and RocketLab tumbled more than 13% and 12%, respectively, in Friday’s session.
Tesla, another Musk-led company, dropped more than 2% in intraday trading. The electric vehicle maker, which is a top stock among retail investors, is worth less than SpaceX.
Retail traders tried to get in on SpaceX’s IPO given their broad support for Musk after Tesla’s success. Yet SpaceX allocated a smaller-than-expected portion of its IPO to the retail class, a source told CNBC.
Some big investors have quietly built out stakes in SpaceX as a private company for nearly two decades.
“Market sentiment is reflecting a book that looks like it was pretty robust,” Dan Alpert, founding managing partner of Westwood Capital, told CNBC. “The folks who only got a portion of the shares they asked for are now looking for a stable market in which to buy.”
SpaceX’s debut is expected to kick off a wave of high-profile IPOs. Anthropic and OpenAI both confidentially filed prospectuses with regulators in recent weeks.
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— CNBC’s John Melloy and Tobias Burns contributed to this report.
