SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) stock price jumped by 19% on its first day as a publicly-traded company, with its valuation crossing the $2 trillion mark as most analysts were expecting.
Analysts Have Mixed Opinions on SpaceX StockJim Chanos, the famed short-seller who blew the whistle on Enron, warned that the elevated valuation made no sense. He pointed to its losses and its 2025 revenue of $18 billion.
Why SPCX Stock May Drop After the IPOThere are several reasons why the SpaceX stock will retreat in the coming weeks or months. First, the hype surrounding its IPO will fade as investors embrace the new normal and start focusing on the upcoming OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs.
Further, the company is losing billions of dollars because of its AI business, which it gained by merging with xAI. Its most recent results showed that it suffered a net loss of over $4.2 billion in the first quarter of this year. It suffered a $4.9 billion last year.
The other reason it may drop is that its tiered lock-up expiry will happen after 180 days. This expiration makes it possible for insiders to start selling their shares. In most cases, stocks often retreat ahead of the expiration date.
Image: Shutterstock
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A crucial element in SpaceX's soaring IPO was the army of do-it-yourself traders who bought some $118 million of SpaceX stock on the first day of trading.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, speaks via video before the ringing of opening bell at the Nasdaq Marketsite at the launch of the company's initial public offering (IPO) on June 12, 2026 in New York City. Getty Images What do you do when your brokerage firm notifies you that you can get in on the deal of the century, the initial public offering of Elon Musk’s SpaceX?
For me, it was easy: Ignore it.
Mind you, the note was enticing. I was offered a “one-day indication of interest,” a window where I could tell the firm I wanted a piece of the AI-satellite-and-rocket conglomerate that aims to colonize Mars. Then, if I was lucky, I could get stock at the IPO price as opposed to the “pop” that comes after the deal is priced at $135 a share.
One problem: I’m a reporter who covers such stocks. I don’t buy individual shares because I can move prices and I don’t want to end up like Andrew Left, the famed short seller who just got convicted of stock manipulation in California.
The bigger problem: If this thing is so great, why come to me?
OK — I’m not quite the bottom of the barrel when it comes to investors; I am a “qualified investor,” which means I have enough savings to meet certain risk thresholds the SEC imposes on such stock sales. But if you know those limits, you also know that I didn’t make this year’s who’s who on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley.
SpaceX was the largest IPO ever. Musk & Co. raised $75 billion and the market valued SpaceX at more than $2 trillion. The deal was supposed to be so sought-after by the “smart money,” it was designated as four times “oversubscribed,” Wall Street parlance for more buyers than sellers.
And yet I have my doubts about the quality of the oversubscription and how long the pop in the stock will last. That’s when the irrational exuberance wears off and shares crater, as they so often do with these “hot IPOs.” The PR offensive to drum up interest had been going on for weeks, with lots of touting that everyone wants in on the next new thing. It picked up steam Thursday when the offering price was set to begin trading on Friday.
‘Dumb money’ What scares me is that it was also targeting the so-called “dumb money,” aka retail investors like me who are easy prey for Wall Street dealmakers and hedge fund flippers when they sell after the spike.
Look at the continued allure of meme stocks, companies with suspect balance sheets that online investors push as the next Apple and Amazon. Some have folded, others have crashed after the irrational exuberance of 2021, and all are well off their highs. Yet, the meme community still exists, hoping to make it big on some miracle when they would have been better off keeping whatever they had in the bank.
SpaceX isn’t a meme stock — far from it — but at least some of the same dynamics apply. Yes, Musk has a lengthy track record defying critics and swarms of short sellers predicting the demise of Tesla. The electric-car maker is now a $1.27 trillion company and among the market’s best performers, up over 30,000% since its IPO years back.
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Musk himself was also worth more than $1 trillion after the SpaceX IPO started trading Friday — and more power to him. We need to reward visionary entrepreneurs who create stuff, making our lives better and more prosperous. Musk built his wealth; he weathered ups and downs along the way — and he produced. Tesla is profitable and it wasn’t always. It took him years to convince Wall Street he wasn’t a fugazy.
But that’s not the point of this column. The financials of SpaceX may or may not follow the same trajectory as Tesla. AI is the future, but so was the internet. Recall all those dot-coms that soared in price after their IPOs only to crash and burn when it came time to produce real earnings.
Last year SpaceX lost nearly $5 billion after turning a small profit in 2024 as it began to build out its AI infrastructure that is supposed to be the glue that holds this disparate conglomerate together.
It also might be worth looking at what this company does. Yes, it sends rockets to space and yes, it does operate satellites for broadband usage. And yes, this will be powered by AI, Musk’s company xAI, to be precise. Buried inside this company is also the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which for all Elon’s headcount shaving still isn’t believed to be profitable.
Maybe this will work, although I’m not sure. There’s also the question of when it will work. On Friday, the IPO went great out of the gate; underwriters Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the best in the business and they know how to work their book of investors.
There will be hedge funds and other savvy trading types who got in on the offering price, who will flip on the pop. Some smart people on Wall Street also believe shares will drop some 20% over the coming months because that’s how these things work.
I’m also pretty sure the underwriters know all of the above, which is why retail investors (like myself) got that call last week.
After all the buildup, the SpaceX (SPCX +19.22%) initial public offering (IPO) was perhaps a bit of a letdown. That's not necessarily because of the stock's performance, which was notable, but because the months of lead-up ended in an event that was completed in, basically, a day. It was sort of like waiting an hour for a roller coaster ride that only lasts three minutes.
Now that SpaceX is public, however, investors need to consider what it means. And one of the biggest issues is the company's massive size. With a $2.1 trillion market cap after just its first day of trading, it is already one of the world's largest companies. Here are a few things to think about if you own it, are considering buying it, or are just investing more broadly.
Image source: Getty Images.
How did the SpaceX IPO go? For those who remember the dot-com bubble, the SpaceX IPO wasn't that impressive. Back at the turn of the century, it was common for IPOs to double in a day. SpaceX "only" saw a price increase of around 19%, with the IPO price set at $135 per share and the stock closing its first day at roughly $160.
From a functional perspective, the bankers who handled the IPO did a pretty good job pricing it. Still, by the end of the day, the company's market cap ballooned to $2.1 trillion. There are only six companies that are larger than SpaceX, and it is a pretty tight race with Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM +0.46%) for the sixth spot, as the chipmaker's market cap is $2.199 trillion.
The good news here is that the market absorbed the IPO in relative stride. That bodes well for the future, since there are more large IPOs on tap, including Anthropic and OpenAI.
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The size of SpaceX has led to big index changes That said, SpaceX's size, combined with the company's popularity, has led to interesting shifts in the world of indexes. While the S&P 500 index (^GSPC +0.50%) is holding to its inclusion rules, other indexes have made changes to quickly add SpaceX to their index lists. For example, the Nasdaq-100 will likely add SpaceX after around 15 days.
Being added to an index will lead index funds to buy the stock, creating additional demand for the shares. Inclusion in indexes will also create a base of investors who have no choice but to own the stock. The normal dynamics of a smaller IPO don't apply here, and, for the most part, the market is in uncharted waters. However, it seems reasonable to expect the shares to hold up, if not rise some more, at least in the near term. From a longer-term perspective, it seems reasonable to expect Anthropic and OpenAI to receive early index inclusions as well.
What about SpaceX as a business? SpaceX is already a massive company, but it is also spending heavily on research and development because "space" is still an emerging technology. While SpaceX is currently a leader in the space industry, there's no guarantee it will remain there. And, perhaps equally important, remaining a leader will likely mean SpaceX remains a money-losing business for longer. And then there's the massive capital being spent on Grok, SpaceX's AI product. Once again, a huge investment is needed to compete in the AI sector. Red ink is likely to be the norm for quite a while.
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While the company's Starlink business is highly profitable, it is merely subsidizing its investments in space exploration and artificial intelligence. And even that isn't enough, since the company clearly needed to raise additional capital by going public. Buying SpaceX today is a bet that Elon Musk's vision will, someday, lead to a profitable business. That belief worked out well with Tesla (TSLA +1.65%), but there's no guarantee of a repeat performance.
In fact, despite its massive size, SpaceX is really just a money-losing start-up. If you wouldn't be comfortable owning a smaller money-losing start-up, you should probably think twice about buying SpaceX. A $2.1 trillion market cap doesn't magically turn SpaceX into a "safe" investment.
SpaceX: Think before you take this leap of faith Headline-grabbing events on Wall Street don't always work out as well as hoped over the long term. Right now, the excitement is high, but if SpaceX continues to bleed red ink, investor enthusiasm could quickly wane. For risk-averse investors, the best way to own SpaceX might be through a diversified index fund. More aggressive growth investors may want to jump aboard, but you'll probably want to think of the unprofitable company as a long-term holding.
The SpaceX (SPCX +19.17%) initial public offering (IPO) is finally here, and whether you invest in it directly or not, this historic event is likely to impact your portfolio. I say it's historic because it is expected to raise $75 billion for the company, the largest-ever initial public offering.
Whether you've sworn off the IPO, were the lucky recipient of IPO shares, or are planning to buy some as soon as you can, here's what you need to know about the bigger picture.
The markets could be volatile It's not just the size of the offering that's huge; the company's total value is expected to start at $1.8 trillion, and it could soar much higher on the first day of trading. A new stock of that size can't go by unnoticed.
Image source: Getty Images.
Prediction sites are already calling the IPO for over $2 trillion. Pre-IPO futures on crypto exchange Hyperliquid are predicting $2.1 trillion right now, although traders on Polymarket only give it a 5% chance of breaking through $3 trillion.
The S&P 500 has been down this week, and although the decline began with a positive jobs report last Friday, investors might be preparing their funds to buy SpaceX stock. Depending on what happens over the next few days, there could be ripples throughout the market.
It's going to be included in several indexes If you own exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the Nasdaq-100 or the Russell 1000, you might be buying SpaceX stock faster than you think. The Nasdaq and FTSE Russell changed their rules to include it sooner than existing regulations allowed, and it might be added to the Russell 1000 as early as five days from now. New rules might also expand its presence in the Nasdaq-100.
ETFs like the popular Invesco QQQ Trust, which tracks the Nasdaq-100, will have to reallocate their funds to reflect changes in the index.
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Not only will these moves add SpaceX to the ETFs, but they could also impact SpaceX's price, as they have to buy so much stock to reflect the changes.
The Invesco ETF, for example, has $460 billion in assets under management. It's the second-most traded ETF on the market, which could add further volatility to the stock and to the market as a whole. It's a weighted index, with its top positions in Nvidia (8.7%), Apple (7.7%), and Microsoft (5.7%), and those stakes will look very different once SpaceX gets in.
Vanguard has three separate ETFs that track the Russell 1000: the Russell 1000 ETF, the Russell 100 Growth ETF, and the Russell 1000 Value ETF, and many other companies have similar index funds. All these ETFs will be buying SpaceX once it's included in the index.
It's not going to be included in the S&P 500 -- yet S&P Global, the company that owns the S&P 500, has declined to change its regulations to include SpaceX stock. To be included, stocks need to be on the market for at least one year and be profitable, in addition to other requirements.
That will provide some measure of stability for at least a year, when SpaceX stock might be eligible to join the broader index if it's profitable. It reported a $4.9 billion loss in 2025 and a $4.3 billion loss in the 2026 first quarter.
It's just another moment in stock market history These are short-term factors, although they could be significant over the next few days or weeks. If you're a long-term investor who's well-diversified among classes and categories, this IPO ultimately won't make a difference in your portfolio. If the SpaceX IPO does end up inducing heavy market volatility, the important thing is to remain calm and not panic sell.
It was a strange day to own a space stock. While SpaceX jumped about 19% in its first session as a public company, several of the smaller, already-public names in the sector went sharply in the other direction. As of this writing, shares of Rocket Lab (RKLB 10.91%), AST SpaceMobile (ASTS 15.62%), and Intuitive Machines (LUNR 13.12%) were all down meaningfully, even as the company they're so often compared to was being celebrated.
So, what happened?
One widely floated explanation is rotation. With retail demand for SpaceX shares running hot, the theory goes that some investors sold their existing space holdings to free up cash for an allocation in the debut. If that's the main driver, the drop says little about these businesses and a lot about a one-day scramble for shares.
But the move may also reflect something more durable: investors taking a harder look at how these companies stack up against a far larger, better-funded rival. Here's a closer look at the three names and whether the drop changes anything.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Rocket Lab Rocket Lab fell more than 10% on Friday -- a notable drop but the mildest of the three -- and one that came on a day the company actually had good news. Rocket Lab said it will join the Nasdaq-100 index later this month -- a milestone that typically brings fresh demand from index funds.
Of the trio, Rocket Lab has the most established business. It runs an active small-rocket launch service and a growing space systems segment that builds satellites and spacecraft components, and its revenue rose about 63.5% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. It is also developing a larger rocket, Neutron, aimed at heavier payloads.
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But the stock's valuation is difficult to justify. Rocket Lab still isn't profitable, and the stock trades at around 80 times sales even after the pullback.
2. AST SpaceMobile AST SpaceMobile took the hardest hit of the group, sliding more than 15% as of this writing. That fits its profile as the most speculative of the three. The company is building a network of satellites designed to beam broadband directly to ordinary smartphones. The vision is ambitious. But it is largely still just a vision.
AST's financials drive this point home. The company generated just $14.7 million in revenue in the first quarter, yet trades at a market value in the tens of billions and a price-to-sales ratio in the hundreds.
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The company is burning cash as it builds out its constellation. It does notably hold more than $3 billion to fund the effort. It is targeting getting about 45 of its BlueBird satellites in orbit by the end of 2026.
There's an irony worth noting, too.
AST has three more satellites set to launch in mid-June -- aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. For all the talk of these companies competing with SpaceX, several still depend on it to reach orbit.
3. Intuitive Machines Intuitive Machines dropped about 13%. Unlike AST, though, this is a company with sizable revenue. Its first-quarter sales came in at about $187 million -- nearly triple the year-ago figure, helped by its acquisition of satellite builder Lanteris.
The lunar specialist also carries a backlog of about $1.1 billion, including NASA and national security work, giving it more visibility into future revenue than most of its peers. And it recently posted its first quarter of positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), marking a small but meaningful step toward profitability.
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Still, the recent stretch hasn't been all good. The company announced a plan earlier this month to sell up to $500 million in new stock, a move that would dilute existing shareholders, and it was passed over for a set of NASA lunar-rover awards that went to competitors.
With a $4.3 billion market capitalization and just $187 million in first-quarter sales, the stock isn't cheap either.
So, is this a chance to buy the dip, or a signal to stay away?
If the move really was driven by investors shuffling money toward the SpaceX debut, then a one-day drop in unrelated businesses is mostly noise. But these stocks were richly valued before this week, and a high-flying growth stock tends to fall hardest when sentiment turns, regardless of the trigger. Rotation may have lit the match, but these stocks were arguably overdue for a correction.
Of the three, Rocket Lab looks like the most defensible business, with Intuitive Machines a more speculative bet on lunar and government work, and AST SpaceMobile the furthest from proving its model.
But none of these stocks got cheap enough on this drop to make them buys. I'd treat the sell-off as a reason to give these stocks a second look, not as a reason to buy them.
SpaceX had a successful IPO, as the company quickly reached a $2.1 trillion valuation. Wall Street assumes SpaceX to reach $226 billion in 2030 revenues, which I underline as unrealistic based on a segment-by-segment analysis. The current valuation relies on shaky earnings assumptions, making SPCX an overly risky investment.
SpaceX's first day on the stock market transformed the startup into one of the world's most-valuable public companies, handed buyers of the IPO a 19% return and turned its founder Elon Musk into the world's first trillionaire. Bloomberg Tech Co-Host Ed Ludlow joined David Gura and Christina Ruffini on Bloomberg This Weekend to discuss.
The most important dates for SpaceX haven't happened yet, according to TD Securities.
Peter Haynes, the firm's head of index and market structure, suggests SpaceX's public debut is only a small part of the larger SpaceX timeline.
He's urging investors to pay close attention to when SpaceX is added to key indexes — including the S&P Total Market Index, MCI Global Index, Russell Indexes and Nasdaq 100 early this summer.
"Day 15 [after SpaceX goes public], which should be July 6… will be the day that Nasdaq rebalances the 100 Index to reflect SpaceX's IPO shares," he told CNBC's "ETF Edge" this week ahead of Friday's IPO. "Then from there, we're looking at when do indexes adjust for the additional shares that will be freely tradable down the road."
In what Haynes called a "controversial decision," the S&P 500 Index Committee announced earlier this month that SpaceX will not be fast-tracked into the index, meaning the Elon Musk rocket maker must trade on the market for at least one year until it becomes eligible.
"That leaves us with the other benchmarks and their rebalancing schedule," said Haynes.
The decision means greater significance for upcoming index events, as many shares will become freely tradable and need to be reflected in the benchmarks, he says.
SpaceX debuted at the Nasdaq at 11:46 a.m. ET on Friday. The stock surged more than 19% to close at $160.95 — its market cap exceeding $2 trillion.
In a special note to CNBC after Friday's market close, Haynes wrote: "We take for granted that the infrastructure that supports the equity trading business always works. Today was a test of that infrastructure and in my opinion the industry passed the test."
The debut is done. After 24 years as a private company, SpaceX (SPCX +19.17%) is now a public stock, and a volatile one. Shares priced at $135, opened at $150, traded as high as about $177, and closed at about $161 as of this writing -- a gain of about 19% on the day, with the stock continuing to climb in after-hours trading.
That move values the rocket and satellite company at roughly $2.1 trillion, up from the $1.77 trillion the IPO price implied. It makes SpaceX one of the most valuable companies in the U.S. on day one, ahead of names like Meta Platforms and founder Elon Musk's own Tesla.
So the interesting question is no longer whether the IPO would succeed. It clearly did. The question for anyone watching the ticker now is whether buying after a 19% pop is a disciplined move or a foolish chase.
Here's a closer look at both sides.
Image source: Getty Images.
The bull case Start with Starlink, the satellite internet business that does most of the heavy lifting. SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) disclosures show the connectivity segment, primarily driven by Starlink, generated about $11.4 billion in revenue in 2025, about 61% of the company's total, and it is the only segment producing consistent profits -- roughly $4.4 billion in operating income, or an operating margin of about 39%.
And the subscriber growth has been steep. Starlink ended 2023 with about 2.3 million subscribers, a figure that climbed to about 8.9 million by the end of 2025 and surpassed 10 million by the first quarter of 2026. The company also has pricing levers it has barely started to pull. After letting average revenue per subscriber fall about 18% to roughly $81 a month between 2023 and 2025 to win volume, SpaceX raised some Starlink prices by up to $10 a month in May.
Then there's the launch business, where SpaceX is dominant in a way few companies are dominant in anything. The company said its rockets accounted for more than four-fifths of all mass launched into orbit in 2025. That is the kind of position that is extraordinarily hard for a competitor to replicate, and it underpins the scarcity argument that helped drive demand for the shares.
There is also the simple fact that there is no other public stock quite like this one. Investors who want exposure to commercial space, satellite broadband, and Musk's broader ambitions now have a single way to get it. That uniqueness arguably commands a premium on its own.
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The risks a day-one buyer takes on But a great business and a great stock are not the same thing, and the gap between the two has rarely looked wider than it does here.
Start with valuation. At about $2.1 trillion, SpaceX trades at well over 100 times its 2025 revenue. For perspective, that is a multiple usually reserved for far smaller companies in the earliest innings of growth, not one of the largest companies in the country. And SpaceX isn't profitable on a consolidated basis. After folding in Musk's AI venture xAI, which it acquired in February 2026, the company posted a net loss of about $4.9 billion in 2025 and a loss of about $4.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone. The AI segment is consuming Starlink's profits and then some.
And a price like this leaves essentially no room for error. It assumes Starlink keeps compounding, the launch business stays unrivaled, and the unprofitable AI unit eventually turns into something that justifies the spending.
There is also the matter of supply. SpaceX structured its lockup unusually, letting some shareholders begin selling portions of their holdings within weeks of the IPO rather than waiting the typical 180 days. Early shareholders can sell 20% of their shares around the company's first quarterly report covering the second quarter, with additional tranches unlocking later in the year. That means a meaningful wave of shareholder selling could arrive well before year-end, which could pressure the stock.
And then there's the volatility a newly public megacap brings. Shares swung from up 11% to up more than 30% and back within a single session. The business is also closely tied to one founder who runs several other companies.
So, post IPO, is SpaceX stock a buy?
I don't think this is the moment to chase it. The business is remarkable, and Starlink alone may justify a massive valuation someday. But the current price already assumes a lot goes right, and the unusual lockup structure, combined with the stock's borderline egregious valuation, could create better entry points down the road.
I'd rather be patient here than chase post-IPO gains.
ARK Invest, the investment firm run by Cathie Wood, scooped up nearly 3.3 million shares of SpaceX (SPCX) on Friday, the day Elon Musk's company went public.
In the lead-up to the SpaceX IPO Wood and ARK Invest liquidated almost $280 million worth of stock positions in a week. On Friday, ARK Invest sold another roughly 948,000 shares of 13 different companies worth at least $48 million, according to company records.
↑ X NOW PLAYING 'It's Controversial': The Debate Over SpaceX's IPO Rule Change
SpaceX went public on Friday at $135 a share in what was the largest IPO ever. Shares closed the day at 160.95, gaining 19.2%.
ARK Invest And SpaceX Wood's ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) did the bulk of the group's buying on Friday, gathering a total of 1,690,839 shares. That put SpaceX at 3.28% of the fund's portfolio. ARK Innovation trades a fraction lower so far this year.
Wood's ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ) scooped up 736,442 shares, 2.65% of the fund's total portfolio. ARKQ has climbed 12.8% this year. The ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETFARKX ended the day with 538,341 SpaceX shares. That is 6.89% of its portfolio. ARK Space & Defense has advanced 16.6% in 2026.
On the sell side, some of ARK's biggest stock sales Friday included: 80,536 shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) valued at a minimum of $13 million; 98,835 shares of Roku (ROKU) worth at least $11.5 million; and 67,420 shares of the Chinese search engine Baidu (BIDU) valued at about $7.7 million, according to ARK Invest data.
The Next Test For the Market, And SpaceX ARK Invest had sold Roku and Baidu stock earlier in the week as well. This was the first time this week the firm sold shares of AMD, though it had been actively selling the stock for several weeks since it surged in May, according to ARK Invest records.
Wood has been a longtime backer of Musk and his various companies. Her firm had previously invested in SpaceX when it was still a private company through its ARK Venture Fund. The fund also had exposure to SpaceX through an investment in Musk's social media platform X. Musk's AI lab xAI bought X, before he eventually merged that company with SpaceX earlier this year.
Prior to SpaceX's IPO, the company was the largest holding in the ARK Venture Fund, representing about 11.4% of its $1.035 billion in assets under management, according to the company's website.
ARK Invest is also heavily invested in Musk's car company Tesla (TSLA). Tesla is the top holding in three different ARK Invest ETFs, according company documents.
The firm owns 3.3 million shares of Tesla in four different ETFs valued at around $1.32 billion. Wood is so bullish on Tesla that ARK Invest famously has a 2029 price target of $2,600 for the stock, which would be about a 540% increase from Friday's closing price of 406.43.
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by Todd Bishop on Jun 13, 2026 at 8:23 amJune 13, 2026 at 8:47 am
Scenes from GeekWire’s visit to Cleveland, where John Cook and Charles Fitzgerald spent several days reporting on the city’s comeback, including a stop at the abandoned Westinghouse light bulb factory where they recorded this week’s podcast. (Charles Fitzgerald and John Cook Photos) John Cook and Charles Fitzgerald spent several days in Cleveland this week, and they came back with a cautionary tale for Seattle: don’t assume the good times will last. But they also found inspiration: a city that’s coming back by getting its business, civic, and public leaders to row in the same direction.
The GeekWire co-founder and the Seattle angel investor called into the GeekWire Podcast from an unlikely setting: an abandoned Westinghouse light bulb factory on Cleveland’s near east side, part of an industrial district called The Midline that’s being redeveloped for a new generation of jobs.
The Cleveland trip closes a loop that opened in February, when Fitzgerald, a GeekWire contributing columnist, wrote a provocative piece warning that Seattle risked becoming the next Cleveland.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb joined the podcast to push back and make the case for his city, then invited the two to come see its comeback for themselves. This week, John and Charles took him up on it.
Over several days, they met with Bibb, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, and a roster of developers, entrepreneurs, and civic and business leaders. What stood out, they say, was a city hustling and aligned around jobs and growth in a way Seattle no longer is. Their takeaway is blunt: Cleveland could eat Seattle’s lunch if Seattle keeps taking its prosperity for granted.
For the full rundown of advice from those Cleveland leaders, see John’s previous story.
Then we turn to the week’s news back home. The Seattle City Council voted unanimously for a one-year moratorium on new large data centers. Fitzgerald argues it’s political theater, since the big AI data centers were never coming to high-cost Seattle anyway, and says the real concern is the signal it sends about whether the city is open for business.
And with the SpaceX IPO landing on Friday, Fitzgerald explains why he’s sitting it out.
Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
As the gigantic space exploration startup barreled toward a public listing after 24 years as a private company, the urgency was apparent. The rush was driven by a canny strategy: go public before the US midterm elections, with a — mostly — pro-Musk president in charge; beat OpenAI and Anthropic to market to get in early on investors' appetite for AI-focused listings; and become a public company before Musk's 55th birthday at the end of June.
Shortly before the opening of Nasdaq trading on Friday, Elon Musk stepped in front of a cheerful crowd at SpaceX's company town in Texas. His rocket maker was about to hit the public market at a valuation of around $2 trillion, instantly becoming the sixth most-valuable U.S. company.
Musk, weeks shy of his 55th birthday, told staffers that, in the early days of the company, he gave it "less than 10% chance of succeeding."
"If people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack," said Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 and has grown it to 22,000 full-time employees. "Because I think this company is going to fail."
Musk is now the world's first trillionaire after his company pulled off the largest IPO on record, raising $75 billion, an amount roughly triple size of the next-biggest U.S. offering, which was Alibaba's in 2014. There are 10 U.S. companies worth at least $1 trillion. Musk runs two of them.
Whatever uncertainty Musk professed to have felt when SpaceX was getting off the ground, he showed none of that in the days leading up to the IPO. In an abbreviated roadshow, SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 and told investors to take it or leave it. There was no price range used to gauge demand and no haggling with prospective shareholders.
That's despite SpaceX having a fraction the revenue of any of tech's megacaps and racking up a $4.9 billion loss last year. After the stock's close on Friday, SpaceX was worth $2.1 trillion, giving it a multiple of 112 times last year's revenue.
"This was not a deal that was priced based on market forces," said Lloyd Greif, an investment banker with Greif & Co. in Los Angeles. "This was a deal based on what one man wanted. And when one man wants it, one man gets it, if that one man is Elon Musk."
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Meanwhile, all of those mentions of trillions and the trillionaire added fuel to the discourse surrounding wealth disparity as consumers deal with crippling inflation due largely to the war in Iran. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, wrote on social media that Musk's new status is a "call to action to take on the unprecedented income and wealth inequality that now exists." And California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X, which is owned by SpaceX, that, "Americans are struggling to pay for groceries and gas while Elon Musk becomes a TRILLIONAIRE."
None of that dampened the mood on Wall Street, which has been desperate to see new offerings after a historically slow period of IPOs dating back to late 2021. In closing the day up 19% and consistently holding well above the offer price, SpaceX's IPO lifted confidence in potential deals later this year from artificial intelligence model giants OpenAI and Anthropic, which are each valued at close to $1 trillion on the private market.
Former Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld said he "would definitely bet" that OpenAI and Anthropic will go public in 2026. Both companies announced this month that they confidentially filed IPO paperwork.
Making Facebook's IPO look smallMore than 500 million SpaceX shares changed hands throughout the day on Friday, a number approaching Facebook's market debut in 2012, when roughly 580 million shares were traded. Facebook's IPO set a record at the time, raising $16 billion. At the end of its first day of trading, Facebook was worth about $100 billion, or one-twentieth SpaceX's current market cap.
One big similarity between the two companies is that they're founder controlled. But even there, SpaceX is on another level. At the time of Facebook's IPO, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had the ability to control 56% of the voting power. For Musk at SpaceX, that number is above 82%.
Musk is certainly not alone in seeing a financial windfall from SpaceX's IPO.
The offering pushed Alphabet's stake past the $100 billion mark, after the company invested about $900 million in SpaceX in 2015. Valor Equity Partners, run by longtime Musk pal Antonio Gracias, is sitting on a stake worth over $80 billion, mostly owned by the firm's clients.
And beyond institutional investors, the IPO reportedly minted some 4,400 millionaires among the ranks of current and former SpaceX employees.
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The stock sale was led by Wall Street heavyweights Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, along with help from Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and a long roster of other big banks and boutique firms. Underwriters gained access to additional shares, or their greenshoe overallotment, on one colorful condition.
"Only if the bankers all wore green shoes," venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who invested in SpaceX in 2009, wrote in a post on X. Jurvetson included a photo of green and white Nike sneakers decorated with the company's logo.
Throughout the morning, some of Musk's top investors and good friends joined CNBC to talk about the historic event. Gracias was one of the guests.
The Valor founder and CEO said he met Musk more than 20 years ago through mutual friend David Sacks, a venture capitalist who until recently served as President Donald Trump's AI and crypto czar. Gracias said he invested in PayPal "in the old days," when Musk and Sacks were among the founding crew, and put early money into Tesla and SpaceX. In both cases, he said his firm worked "on hard problems to try and help these companies succeed."
Gracias' relationship with Musk extends beyond business. He spent some time last year working with Musk as part of the Trump Administration's DOGE effort to slash government spending. As for SpaceX, Gracias said he plans to hold onto the stock "as long as I possibly can."
Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, whose firm invested in SpaceX in 2019, called Musk a "generational entrepreneur," likening his planned delivery of the Starship launch vehicle to the introduction of railroads. He said he was confident the company could be generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue in 2030.
Maguire said Sequoia will distribute some shares to investors "if we feel like the valuation is way ahead of its skis," but said that, "as an individual, I'm going to hold my shares forever."
'Heavily dependent on Starship'Skeptics of SpaceX's lofty valuation questioned the logic of it all. The company counts on its Starlink satellite internet service for the bulk of its revenue and it's the only profitable part of the business. But investors don't pay historically high multiples for broadband service, no matter how good it is.
The space launch division is burning cash and is counting on the Starship rocket to scale to much better economics than the Falcon fleet. And the AI unit, which came in through the acquisition of Musk's xAI, is currently a money pit that's pivoted to leasing out massive amounts of capacity to the likes of Anthropic and Google.
Financial research firm CFRA gave SpaceX a sell rating and price target of $115, minutes after the company's Nasdaq debut. Analysts said SpaceX has "elevated valuation expectations," and living up to them would require proving the viability of Starship, expanding Starlink, generating returns from AI infrastructure, and eventually producing consistent free cash flows.
"Our primary concern is that SpaceX's long-term strategy remains heavily dependent on Starship," CFRA analyst Keith Snyder wrote in a note to clients, saying that the Starship rocket could be a "bottleneck" for various SpaceX initiatives.
Then there's SpaceX's stated $28.5 trillion total addressable market across space, connectivity and AI. That figure doesn't include other literal moonshots like space tourism, asteroid mining or manufacturing in orbit. Nor does it include transportation to Mars.
Aswath Damodaran, a New York University finance professor, told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Friday that seeing the addressable market figure SpaceX provided made him think the prospectus was written by Grok, the xAI chatbot, rather than a banker.
"This is a hallucination," Damodaran said. "I would be embarrassed to even put that number out."
Maguire, a Musk permabull, said he stands by the projection.
"I would even argue it's an underestimate," he said.
While Musk is the face of SpaceX, getting to this point has a lot to do with the work of Gwynne Shotwell, the company's operating chief and one of its first employees.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC ahead of the IPO, Shotwell responded to a question about whether her boss would ever combine SpaceX with Tesla. It's a potential transaction that's long been rumored about, even more since Musk merged SpaceX with xAI after previously doing the same with xAI and X.
Shotwell, whose stake in SpaceX is now worth over $2 billion, didn't dismiss the possibility, but made clear that it's not on her priority list.
"There's no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures," Shotwell told CNBC's Morgan Brennan at Starbase. "There's a convergence of what we're all trying to accomplish in the future, but right now I'm focused on keeping the lights on here, keeping rockets in production, flying rockets, flying people, getting to the International Space Station, and critically providing broadband to folks that don't have access."
Musk, for his part, spent a fair amount of time on Friday appearing to relish the moment. As his company's IPO was dominating the news cycle, Musk was active on social media, mostly reposting messages, videos and photos from supporters touting his company's success. He didn't write much, but he did have one message he wanted to share on X.
"I love the incredible people of SpaceX beyond words," he wrote.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) just went public in the largest IPO of all time, raising $75 billion at a valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion. Many investors are excited to finally own a piece of the Starlink satellite internet business, SpaceX's dominant rocket launch business, and the high-potential xAI artificial intelligence business.
However, the story here goes beyond how SpaceX stock will perform as a publicly traded company. It's important for investors to keep in mind that SpaceX just raised $75 billion in fresh capital, and with big growth ambitions, the company will deploy it into AI computing hardware, rocket and satellite parts, and more. And there are some publicly traded companies that could be big winners now that such a big customer has much deeper pockets.
With that in mind, here are five companies in particular that could be big beneficiaries of SpaceX's IPO windfall for years to come.
Image source: Getty Images.
5 Companies that could make billions now that SpaceX is public To be clear, there are more than just five. SpaceX buys components from dozens of companies, and many others are likely to get secondary tailwinds from the IPO. But here are five in particular that investors might want to take a closer look at.
1. Alphabet Alphabet (GOOG +0.44%)(GOOGL +0.53%) could be a big winner from the SpaceX IPO, but not because SpaceX is a major customer. Alphabet made a $900 million investment in SpaceX in 2015, when SpaceX had a $12 billion valuation. At the IPO valuation, Alphabet's stake is worth about $150 billion. That's already an incredible return, but if SpaceX's stock were to rise post-IPO, it could become a serious needle-mover for the Google parent company.
2. Nvidia You've probably heard about SpaceX's deals to provide compute infrastructure to Anthropic and Google, which will require SpaceX to continue purchasing hundreds of thousands of GPUs and other AI computing components. And I wouldn't be surprised to see further compute deals announced, creating an excellent recurring revenue stream for SpaceX. Nvidia (NVDA +0.15%) is likely the most direct beneficiary of SpaceX's deeper pockets post-IPO.
3. Moog Now we're starting to dig a little deeper. Moog (MOGA 2.55%) is the leader in precision motion control systems for the aviation, space, and defense industries. The company provides essential components for many satellites, and once Starship improves SpaceX's launch economics, the volume of new satellite deployments could increase rapidly.
4. Kratos Defense & Security Kratos Defense & Security (KTOS 1.75%) is best known for its unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), but it also offers the only commercially available satellite ground system, OpenSpace. Even if Kratos doesn't get a direct SpaceX contract, it is a clear beneficiary as the commercial satellite economy accelerates.
5. Intel To say that Intel (INTC +6.49%) has been a big winner recently would be an understatement. The company has benefited from an investment from the U.S. government and partnerships with Nvidia, Apple (AAPL 1.52%), and other tech giants. Investors have been handsomely rewarded, with the stock up about 500% over the past year alone. However, it's also worth noting that Intel has a close relationship with both SpaceX and Tesla (TSLA +1.65%) as a key Terafab partner. Specifically, Terafab will use Intel's next-generation fabrication technology, and the capital SpaceX raised in its IPO could be a major source of funding to get the Terafab project going.
The bottom line As mentioned, there could be plenty of winners from the SpaceX IPO. But these are five companies that should be major beneficiaries of SpaceX's massive infusion of capital for years to come, and they could be worth a look for patient investors.
Matt Frankel, CFP® has positions in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, Intel, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Moog, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The stock market loves a good debut. None has been bigger than SpaceX‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX) long-awaited IPO, which valued the aerospace giant at the close of trading on the first day at $2.1 trillion. Retail investors who spent years waiting for access to the private company finally got their chance, while institutions rushed to secure shares of a business that has transformed both the launch industry and satellite communications.
Yet amid the excitement surrounding SpaceX’s market debut, the company’s top executive delivered a message that sounded more like a warning than a sales pitch.
Why SpaceX Chose to Go Public Now For years, SpaceX founder Elon Musk resisted taking the company public. The concern was straightforward: public markets often reward short-term performance, while SpaceX has built its business around projects that can take years — or even decades — to fully mature.
That challenge has become more manageable as SpaceX’s core businesses have reached a new level of scale. The company generated tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue through a combination of launch services, government contracts, and its rapidly growing Starlink satellite internet network. Starlink alone has become the largest satellite broadband provider in the world, serving millions of customers across more than 100 countries. It is also SpaceX’s only profitable business.
While the company is still burning cash — some $9.1 billion in negative free cash flow in Q1 — it is not just some startup trying to prove a concept. It is a mature enterprise generating $4.1 billion in quarterly revenue while continuing to invest in ambitious projects such as X, xAI, space-based data centers, Starship, and future Mars missions.
That shift helps explain why management finally felt comfortable opening the doors to public investors.
The Message Many Investors Missed During a CNBC interview, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell offered a remarkably candid assessment of what investors should expect from owning the stock.
She wasn’t focused on the first day of trading. She wasn’t discussing price targets or quarterly earnings estimates. Instead, Shotwell emphasized that SpaceX does not want to become consumed by quarter-to-quarter performance. More importantly, she cautioned potential shareholders that the company’s operating horizon is measured in decades, not months.
That’s an unusual message in today’s market. Many newly public companies spend their first weeks encouraging investors to focus on near-term growth opportunities. Shotwell effectively did the opposite. Her message was clear: if investors are buying SpaceX expecting to react to every earnings report, product announcement, or analyst estimate, they may be approaching the stock the wrong way.
Granted, public companies still must report quarterly results and answer to shareholders. That reality doesn’t disappear after an IPO. But Shotwell’s comments suggest management intends to keep making decisions based on long-term objectives, even when those choices may not maximize next quarter’s numbers.
History shows that many of the market’s best-performing companies rewarded investors who ignored short-term volatility. Companies such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) spent years sacrificing near-term profits to build larger opportunities. Shareholders who focused on quarterly fluctuations often missed the bigger story.
SpaceX appears to be asking investors to adopt a similar mindset. The company’s largest opportunities — including Starship, deep-space transportation, and expanding Starlink’s global reach — are projects measured over years, not quarters. Success will likely be uneven. There will be delays, cost overruns, and periods when quarterly results fail to impress Wall Street.
In any case, management appears willing to accept those short-term bumps if they advance the company’s long-term goals.
Key Takeaway In short, Gwynne Shotwell’s comments weren’t really a warning against buying SpaceX stock. They were a warning against buying it for the wrong reasons.
Regardless of whether investors choose to own SpaceX, the lesson applies to virtually every stock. The most successful investments are rarely determined by the next earnings report or the next headline. They are determined by how a business performs over years of execution.
Smart investors should approach any stock purchase with at least a three- to five-year horizon. A decade is even better. That mindset reduces the temptation to react to every quarterly number and keeps attention focused where it belongs: on the long-term value a company can create.
Ultimately, SpaceX’s leadership is telling investors exactly what kind of shareholders they want. That’s exactly the kind of management investors should want. The question is whether investors are willing to listen.
HomePersonal FinanceReal Estate2025 set an all-time high for first-time buyers who used financial assets to buy a home or fund a down payment, according to the National Association of RealtorsPublished: June 13, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. ET
The SpaceX IPO could change the game on high-end real estate in Texas — and elsewhere. Photo: Getty Images)The SpaceX IPO is creating a whole new round of deep-pocketed home buyers — and deepening the gulf between high-end housing markets and everyday real estate.
Austin, Texas-based real-estate agent Matt Holm is already helping some SpaceX employees with their home search. Friday — when a record-breaking initial public offering kicked off trading of SpaceX’s stock SPCX — marked “a pretty good one-day bump to millionaires and billionaires in one town,” said Holm, team lead of the Holm Team with Compass Real Estate COMP.
Investors were hard pressed to find critical things to say about the SpaceX initial public offering on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq Friday.
Despite a large retail allocation and a huge amount of hype, trading wasn't especially volatile and the positive momentum continued after the market closed for the weekend.
The rocket launch, computing and satellite company delivered the largest IPO ever, with a trading volume of more than 500 million shares and a closing price above $160, putting its first-day market capitalization over $2.1 trillion.
The stock opened at $150 and finished the day nearly 20% above its telegraphed offering price of $135 per share. It continued to rise in after-hours trading, reaching $166.85.
SpaceX, 1 day
"The price was going to be $135 a week ago, but it could have gone the other direction, and where it's trading now is probably a win-win for everybody concerned," Paul Meeks, head of technology research at Freedom Capital Markets, told CNBC during the trading day on Friday.
The stock started trading after 11:30AM and rocketed up 30% to its high point of $176.52 less than two hours later. That's when investors started to sell, grabbing gains off the initial enthusiasm.
"To what extent will the retail placement … result in sellers? You could see that if the thing hits $170 or $180. You could see it trading at a relatively flat level and then selling off – which may be happening as we speak," Dan Alpert, founder of Westwood Capital, told CNBC on Friday afternoon.
Shares fell back down toward $158 in the afternoon but rebounded a tad in the run-up to the close, settling at $160.95.
There had been some concern on Wall Street that SpaceX's announced retail allocation of up to 30% was going to result in much wilder price swings.
"You never know what retail buyers are going to do with stock after it opens," Alpert said. "To the extent that Wall Street places stock with institutional buyers, especially those they view as non-flippers, you have a much safer boat than when you introduce greater-than-average retail interest."
So-called perpetual futures for the IPO had been priced around $162 on the Hyperliquid platform in the middle of the week, and Friday's closing price was close to that.
Part of the 'Mag 7'?Many analysts on Wall Street were concerned on Friday about whether SpaceX can live up to its massive valuation in the long term.
Commentary centered on the viability of its reusable Starship rocket, the monetization of AI, and the eventual generation of free cash flows.
One Wall Street firm – CFRA – gave SpaceX a sell rating shortly after it began trading.
But the steady and positive performance of the stock on Friday is likely to keep those concerns pushed out into the future, at least for now.
Analysts said Friday that SpaceX should already be considered as part of a new category of market-defining mega-cap stocks, evolving out of the previous, highly recognizable Magnificent Seven.
"It's in there," DA Davidson head of technology research Gil Luria told CNBC on Friday. "It includes some of our old favorites – Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta. Now it includes SpaceX."
MIAMI, FL, June 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dengan SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) dijangka mula didagangkan di Nasdaq hari ini, Defiance ETFs mengesahkan bahawa Defiance Daily 2X Space ETF (Cboe: SPCL) akan menyasarkan pendedahan berleveraj harian 2X kepada saham biasa Kelas A SpaceX dalam portfolionya. Langkah ini menjadikan SPCL sebagai dana dagangan bursa (ETF) pertama dan satu-satunya di Amerika Syarikat yang mempunyai pendedahan 2X kepada SpaceX pada hari IPO. Pendedahan SpaceX dalam dana tersebut ditetapkan pada harga IPO sebanyak USD135 sesaham.
SpaceX menetapkan harga penawaran awam perdana pada USD135 sesaham dan mula didagangkan hari ini dengan simbol tiket SPCX. Pada harga tersebut, syarikat ini dinilai kira-kira USD1.77 trilion, yang menurut laporan merupakan IPO terbesar dalam sejarah Amerika Syarikat berdasarkan nilai pasaran pada hari penyenaraiannya.
Dengan menetapkan pendedahan SpaceX pada harga IPO USD135, bukannya pada harga pembukaan dagangan awam, SPCL menyediakan pendedahan berleveraj harian 2X kepada SpaceX kepada pedagang aktif sebaik sahaja pasaran dibuka.
Untuk maklumat lengkap mengenai dana, prospektus, pegangan portfolio dan prestasi setakat akhir bulan terkini, layari defianceetfs.com/spcl atau hubungi 833.333.9383.
Pelaburan dalam SPCL bukan pelaburan langsung ke dalam sekuriti asas. Dana ini tidak sesuai untuk semua pelabur. Ia direka khusus untuk pelabur berpengetahuan yang memahami implikasi mencari hasil pelaburan leveraj harian (2X), menyedari risiko penggunaan leveraj, dan bersedia memantau portfolio mereka dengan kerap. Dana ini tidak bertujuan untuk digunakan oleh pelabur yang tidak berhasrat untuk memantau serta mengurus portfolio secara aktif. Dana ini mempunyai objektif pelaburan berleveraj harian, yang bermaksud ia lebih berisiko berbanding alternatif yang tidak menggunakan leveraj. Dana ini menggandakan prestasi Portfolio Sasaran dan direka semata-mata untuk kegunaan jangka pendek. Bagi tempoh melebihi satu hari, prestasi Dana akan menjadi hasil pulangan harian terkumpul, yang hampir pasti berbeza daripada 200% pulangan Portfolio Sasaran bagi tempoh yang sama. Pelabur mungkin kehilangan keseluruhan modal dalam satu hari dagangan.
Penyataan Pendedahan Penting
Defiance ETFs LLC ialah penaja ETF. Penasihat pelaburan Dana ini ialah Tidal Investments LLC (“Tidal” atau “Penasihat”).
Objektif pelaburan, risiko, caj dan perbelanjaan Dana mesti dipertimbangkan dengan teliti sebelum membuat pelaburan. Prospektus dan prospektus ringkas mengandungi maklumat ini serta maklumat penting lain dan boleh diperoleh dengan menghubungi 833.333.9383 atau melayari defianceetfs.com/spcl. Sila baca prospektus dan prospektus ringkas dengan teliti sebelum melabur.
Pelaburan dalam Dana melibatkan tahap risiko yang tinggi. Seorang pelabur boleh kehilangan keseluruhan nilai prinsipal pelaburannya dalam satu hari dagangan.
Risiko Strategi dan Penyusunan Semula. Dana ini diurus secara aktif dan, menurut Prospektus yang telah dipinda baru-baru ini, boleh menyusun semula portfolionya supaya tertumpu kepada pendedahan terhadap satu sekuriti syarikat angkasa lepas sebagai tindak balas kepada suatu “Peristiwa Angkasa Material” – ditakrifkan termasuk penawaran awam perdana (IPO) sesebuah syarikat, seperti SpaceX, yang ditentukan oleh Penasihat sebagai peserta penting dalam ekonomi angkasa. IPO SpaceX, sebagai Peristiwa Angkasa Material, akan menyebabkan Dana memegang keseluruhan atau sebahagian besar portfolionya dalam instrumen yang memberikan pendedahan kepada saham SpaceX, sekali gus mendedahkan Pemegang Saham sedia ada dan masa depan kepada portfolio pelaburan yang jauh lebih tertumpu dan berpotensi lebih volatil akibat peristiwa tersebut. Hasil pelaburan Dana berikutan penyusunan semula sebagai tindak balas kepada Peristiwa Angkasa Material mungkin berbeza secara ketara daripada hasil sebelumnya, dan Dana mungkin buat sementara waktu menyimpang daripada tahap pendedahan harian yang disasarkan. Prospektus Dana tidak mewajibkan Penasihat memberikan notis awal sebelum penyusunan semula; bagaimanapun, Portfolio Sasaran Dana diterbitkan secara harian di laman webnya di www.defianceetfs.com/spcl.
Pelaburan dalam Dana bukanlah pelaburan langsung dalam SpaceX. Dana ini berusaha mendapatkan pendedahan kepada saham biasa Kelas A SpaceX, serta sekuriti syarikat angkasa lain, melalui derivatif dan bukannya dengan memegang sekuriti asas secara langsung. Pegangan Dana boleh berubah pada bila-bila masa dan tidak boleh dianggap sebagai cadangan untuk membeli atau menjual mana-mana sekuriti.
Risiko Portfolio Tertumpu dan Kepekatan. Dana ini mungkin mencari pendedahan kepada satu atau sejumlah kecil sekuriti syarikat angkasa, termasuk SpaceX. Memandangkan pendedahan Dana tertumpu kepada satu atau sebilangan kecil saham pendasar seperti SpaceX, Dana terdedah kepada pergerakan harga, prestasi perniagaan, perkembangan pengawalseliaan dan risiko lain yang khusus kepada SpaceX atau syarikat angkasa lain. Dana ini jauh kurang terdiversifikasi berbanding ETF tradisional. Prestasinya juga lebih tidak menentu berbanding dana yang memberi pendedahan kepada sektor pasaran yang lebih luas atau menjejaki indeks sekuriti berasaskan luas.
Risiko Leveraj, Penggandaan dan Tetapan Semula Harian. Dana ini mensasarkan hasil pelaburan harian bersamaan 200% daripada prestasi harian Portfolio Sasaran yang terdiri daripada satu atau sejumlah kecil sekuriti syarikat angkasa. Portfolio tersebut boleh termasuk, atau sepenuhnya terdiri daripada, saham biasa Kelas A SpaceX sekiranya berlaku Peristiwa Angkasa Material. Dana tersebut memperoleh pendedahan melebihi aset bersihnya melalui leveraj, yang menggandakan keuntungan dan kerugian. Pulangan Dana bagi tempoh melebihi satu hari berkemungkinan berbeza, dari segi magnitud dan mungkin juga arah, daripada sasaran hariannya yang dinyatakan. Untuk tempoh melebihi satu hari, Dana akan mengalami kerugian jika prestasi Portfolio Sasarannya mendatar dan juga berkemungkinan mengalami kerugian walaupun prestasi Portfolio Sasarannya meningkat. Dana ini bertujuan untuk perlaburan jangka pendek dan tidak sesuai bagi pelabur yang tidak berhasrat untuk memantau serta mengurus portfolio mereka secara aktif.
Risiko Syarikat Baharu Tersenarai. SpaceX baharu sahaja menyelesaikan, atau sedang dalam proses menyelesaikan penawaran awam permulaannya. Hari pertama dagangan sekuriti syarikat yang baharu tersenarai lazimnya melibatkan aktiviti pasaran luar biasa dan mungkin berbeza dengan ketara daripada hari-hari dagangan berikutnya. Sebagai contoh, dagangan saham biasa SpaceX boleh dicirikan oleh volatiliti harga yang besar, pergerakan harga yang pantas, perbezaan ketara antara harga IPO dan harga pasaran pembukaan, spread bida-tawar yang luas, imbangan dagangan yang tidak stabil, kecairan terhad, pemberhentian dagangan serta gangguan pasaran lain. Keadaan ini boleh menyukarkan peserta pasaran menilai saham biasa SpaceX dan boleh menyumbang kepada turun naik yang signifikan dalam harga pasaran Saham Dana tersebut.
Risiko Khusus SpaceX. Pendedahan Dana kepada saham SpaceX akan mendedahkannya kepada risiko khusus SpaceX, termasuk status dijangka sebagai syarikat terkawal dengan kuasa mengundi tertumpu pada pengasas Elon Musk melalui saham biasa Kelas B (10 undi setiap saham), pergantungan Dana kepada perkhidmatan dan reputasi Musk, serta risiko pelaksanaan berkaitan teknologi baharu atau belum terbukti seperti program Starship, satelit generasi baharu Starlink dan inisiatif AI orbit.
Risiko Pendedahan Hari Dagangan Pertama IPO. Dana menjangkakan untuk mendapatkan pendedahan kepada prestasi saham biasa SpaceX yang diukur daripada harga pasaran pembukaan pada hari pertama dagangan di bursa. Dana tidak akan berusaha untuk memberi pendedahan kepada perbezaan antara harga tawaran IPO dan harga pasaran pembukaan saham biasa SpaceX. Tiada jaminan bahawa Dana akan dapat memperoleh, mengekalkan atau mengimbangi semula tahap pendedahan yang disasarkan kepada prestasi saham biasa SpaceX sepanjang hari pertama dagangannya.
Risiko Kekangan Kapasiti Derivatif. Oleh kerana SpaceX akan menjadi syarikat baharu tersenarai, pasaran bagi perjanjian swap, kontrak opsyen dan instrumen lain yang mungkin digunakan Dana untuk mendapatkan pendedahan leveraj mungkin terhad, tidak cair, bervolatiliti tinggi, mahal, atau tidak tersedia. Pihak lawan boleh mengenakan had pendedahan, bursa boleh mengenakan had posisi atau sekatan lain dan peserta pasaran mungkin enggan atau tidak mampu menyediakan tahap pendedahan yang disasarkan oleh Dana. Kekangan ini boleh meningkatkan ralat penjejakan, menyebabkan Dana memperoleh pulangan jauh lebih rendah daripada pendedahan leveraj harian yang disasarkan terhadap prestasi saham SpaceX, atau menghalang Dana daripada mencapai objektif pelaburannya. Risiko ini mungkin lebih ketara dalam tempoh segera selepas IPO apabila volum dagangan, keadaan kecairan, ketersediaan derivatif, kapasiti pihak lawan, penemuan harga dan volatiliti pasaran sangat tidak menentu.
Risiko Derivatif dan Tidak-Pempelbagaian. Dana ini menggunakan perjanjian swap dan/atau kontrak opsyen tersenarai untuk mendapatkan pendedahan ekonomi kepada sekuriti Portfolio Sasarannya, yang tertakluk kepada risiko pihak lawan, kecairan, penilaian, korelasi dan leveraj, serta risiko bahawa derivatif tidak akan berfungsi seperti yang dijangkakan. Dana tersebut diklasifikasikan sebagai tidak-pempelbagaian dan boleh melaburkan sebahagian besar asetnya untuk memberi pendedahan kepada satu penerbit sahaja.
Risiko Cukai. Penggunaan swap dan derivatif lain oleh Dana boleh menghasilkan pendapatan bercukai, termasuk pendapatan biasa dan keuntungan modal jangka pendek, yang lazimnya dikenakan cukai pada kadar lebih tinggi berbanding keuntungan modal jangka panjang.
Prestasi lalu tidak menjamin keputusan masa depan. Pegangan dan pendedahan Dana boleh berubah pada bila-bila masa dan tidak boleh dianggap sebagai cadangan untuk membeli atau menjual mana-mana sekuriti.
Defiance Daily 2X Space ETF diedarkan oleh Foreside Fund Services, LLC.
Perihal Defiance ETFs
Ditubuhkan pada tahun 2018, Defiance ialah penerbit ETF terkemuka yang memfokuskan kepada ETF bertema, berpendapatan dan leveraj. ETF leveraj saham tunggal yang diperkenalkan sebagai perintis oleh Defiance membolehkan pelabur mengambil posisi diperbesarkan dalam syarikat berpotensi tinggi, memberikan pendedahan leveraj yang tepat tanpa perlu membuka akaun margin.
槓桿、複合與每日重設風險。此基金力求每日投資結果，達到目標組合每日表現的 200%。該目標組合由一間或少數太空公司證券組成，因應重大太空事件，可能包括或完全為 SpaceX A 類普通股。此基金運用槓桿取得超出其資產淨值的曝險，此舉會同時放大損益。此基金於超過單一交易日期間的回報，在金額及可能的方向上，均很可能與其訂明的每日目標出現偏差。當持有期超越一個交易日，若目標投資組合表現持平，本基金將蒙受虧損；且即使目標投資組合表現上揚，本基金仍有機會虧損。本基金為短期操作而設，不適用於無意主動監察和管理投資組合的投資者。
Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +19.17%), known as SpaceX, went public on Friday, June 12. The rocket and satellite company priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $135 per share. With about 13.1 billion shares outstanding, that gave SpaceX an initial market value of nearly $1.8 trillion, making it the largest IPO in history.
Yet some Wall Street experts think SpaceX will blast past Nvidia's current market value of $4.9 trillion. CNBC's Jim Cramer says the company could quickly hit $6 trillion, and hedge fund billionaire Ron Baron says SpaceX could eventually be worth $14 trillion.
Here's what investors should know.
Image source: Getty Images.
Jim Cramer says SpaceX stock could hit $6 trillion due to mismatched supply and demand SpaceX has an unusually small float, less than 5%, which means an abnormally small portion of total shares outstanding is currently available for public trading. For context, most Nasdaq-100 stocks have floats that exceed 80%.
Meanwhile, institutional and retail investors are eager to own SpaceX shares, and recent changes to the Nasdaq-100 will make the stock eligible for inclusion in just 15 trading days. Previously, companies had to be listed for at least one year and required a float of at least 10%. But the one-year rule has been amended to 15 days for large companies, and the 10% minimum float rule has been eliminated.
This means there are very few SpaceX shares available for trading, but there is also massive demand, not only from institutional and retail investors, but also (potentially) from index funds that track the Nasdaq-100. Jim Cramer thinks that mismatch could drive SpaceX's market valuation to $6 trillion.
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Ron Baron says SpaceX stock could hit $14 trillion as orbital AI data centers drive revenue growth SpaceX is uniquely positioned to revolutionize the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure industry through vertical integration, enabling orbital data centers (i.e., data centers in space). No other company brings together the necessary launch capacity, satellite connectivity, and supercomputing expertise.
SpaceX's Starship system is a fully and rapidly reusable spacecraft that will reduce the cost to reach orbit by 99% compared to the historical average. SpaceX's Starlink operates the largest broadband satellite constellation, with about 10,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit and plans to expand to 1 million data center satellites. SpaceX subsidiary xAI was the first company to deploy a coherent gigawatt-scale AI training cluster, and its Colossus systems are the largest AI training clusters on Earth. Orbital data centers sound like science fiction, and the concept certainly raises questions: How fast could AI servers in space be repaired or upgraded? How would the infrastructure be protected from cosmic radiation? However, CEO Elon Musk says orbital data centers are the only practical solution to the power and cooling constraints that plague terrestrial data centers.
The total cost of operating data centers is heavily influenced by energy, cooling, and distribution requirements. In orbit, chips are expected to be powered by solar energy, which is low cost and unlimited, and we expect to leverage radiative cooling architectures, which incur no operating costs compared to liquid or air cooling.
SpaceX says it will start deploying orbital AI compute satellites as early as 2028. Billionaire Ron Barron believes that will translate into massive subscriber growth for Starlink, pushing revenue toward $1 trillion within a decade. In turn, he believes SpaceX's market value will reach $14 trillion in about 10 years.
Is SpaceX stock a buy? SpaceX is an intriguing company with grand ambitions that range from interplanetary travel to orbital data centers, but large IPOs have historically underperformed their initial valuations. In fact, since listing shares, the 10 biggest U.S. IPOs in history (by market value at the IPO price) have underperformed the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.50%) by an average of 100 percentage points.
In other words, investors have historically been better off purchasing shares of an S&P 500 index fund rather than participating in large IPOs. Only time will tell if SpaceX falls into that category, but I think investors should avoid the stock for now. Large IPO stocks often decline during their first year on the market, and SpaceX went public at an absurdly expensive valuation of 92 times sales.
For context, Palantir Technologies currently has the highest valuation in the S&P 500 at 60 times sales. SpaceX was about 50% more expensive at its IPO price. That seems unsustainable.
But investors should keep the stock on their watch lists. More attractive buying opportunities may arise over the next 24 months.
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Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP After eBay acquired PayPal in 2002, the PayPal mafia went on to reshape Silicon Valley. Now, after Musk's blockbuster SpaceX IPO, employees and investors who made fortunes are expected to redeploy some of their massive windfalls into the new wave of space companies, many of them founded by the so-called SpaceX mafia.
"Many of today's leading technology investors and entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks, came out of the PayPal ecosystem and went on to shape the next generation of technology companies," Justus Parmar, CEO of Fortuna Investments, a venture capital firm that invested in both SpaceX and Tesla, told Business Insider.
"A SpaceX IPO could become a similar watershed moment for the space industry."
Members of the SpaceX Mafia have raised funding from top venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, and Founders Fund. A handful also passed through Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's famed funding and mentorship program for nascent startups.
Thousands of former SpaceX employees have been waiting for the IPO for years.
"The SpaceX IPO will trickle down to the SpaceX mafia startups in a variety of ways," Jamie Gull, a former SpaceX engineer turned deep tech investor, told Business Insider.
"The most obvious way is providing liquidity for angel investing into SpaceX peers," he said, referring to the thousands of employee millionaires the IPO has created who can soon write checks to other employees for their nascent startups.
Spencer Jackson, another former SpaceX engineer, says he is not sure going public was the right decision for SpaceX. Still, he hopes it will boost startups like the one he founded in 2024, Critical Energy, which is making modular power plants that convert heat into electricity.
"The space industry and every startup in it has benefited heavily from SpaceX's rising star, with incredible amounts of capital flowing into the space and a willingness to take big risks," Jackson told Business Insider. "That will only accelerate if the IPO goes well."
Collectively, SpaceX Mafia companies have already raised billions in venture capital funding, according to data from analytics firm PitchBook and the founders. Here's Business Insider's list of 18 startups helmed by SpaceX-employees-turned-founders, first published in December, in alphabetical order by company name.
Nikita Ermoshkin, cofounder, CEO, and CTO of Airhart Aeronautics
Nikita Ermoshkin Airhart Aeronautics Total raised: $5.06 million, according to PitchBook
Founding date: May 2022
Key investors: Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, and angel investors
Number of employees: 8, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Ermoshkin was at SpaceX for three years and last served as an avionics systems responsible engineer.
Airhart Aeronautics says it is building an easy-to-fly personal airplane to "give everyone the freedom of flight."
"At SpaceX, I learned the value of extreme ownership," Ermoshkin said. "As a responsible engineer, I was expected to understand and drive every part of a project — from early design through production and launch. That experience was instrumental in preparing me to be a founder and CEO."
Max Benassi, cofounder and CTO of Apex Space
Max Benassi Apex Space Total raised: More than $500 million, according to the company
Number of employees: Over 230, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Benassi worked at SpaceX for six years, and last served as a senior propulsion engineer for Raptor turbomachinery and dynamic balancing.
Apex mass-manufactures satellite platforms that can serve a wide range of customers.
"It was an intense training ground where we tackled the most difficult problems by breaking them into manageable parts," Benassi said of his tenure at SpaceX. "My advice to engineers: Think harder, go faster, challenge requirements, simplify first, optimize next. "
Robert Carlisle, Ryan Carlisle, and Kirby Carlisle, cofounders, Argo Space
Robert Carlisle Argo Space Total raised: Over $10 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2022
Key investors: Crosslink Capital, Boost VC, Type One Ventures, Stellar Ventures
Number of employees: 22, according to the company
Roles at SpaceX: Robert Carlisle, director of commercial launch sales and national security sales (five years); Ryan Carlisle, director of engineering (nine years); Kirby Carlisle, integration and test engineer (four years)
The Carlisle brothers cofounded Argo Space, which is working on technology that could use water from the moon to propel space transportation. "My time at SpaceX showed me real value is created not by the incremental advances most companies pursue, but by paradigm change," Robert Carlisle said. "My cofounders and I also learned firsthand the myriad benefits of aggressively and urgently getting to hardware build and operation, which we're applying at Argo."
Laura Crabtree, cofounder and CEO of Epsilon3
Laura Crabtree Josh Villbrandt Total raised: $18.92 million, according to PitchBook
Founding date: February 2021
Key investors: Lux Capital, MaC Venture Capital, Moore Capital Management, Y Combinator, Village Global, Stage Venture Partners.
Number of employees: 27, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Crabtree was at SpaceX for nearly 11 years, last serving as a senior missions operations engineer.
Epsilon3 builds software for managing engineering, assembly, and testing, primarily in the space industry.
"At SpaceX in the early days, you were given a problem to solve, without much direction on how to solve it," she said. "That environment helped people develop a scrappy attitude and a low ego when it came to doing whatever was needed, no matter the task."
"We're also incredibly loyal," she added. "There are many people I've worked with in the past who are now using Epsilon3 at the companies they started (or joined) after SpaceX."
Karan Talati, cofounder and CEO, First Resonance
Karan Talati First Resonance Total raised: $32 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2019
Key investors: Blue Bear Capital, Craft Ventures, Third Prime, Fika Ventures
Number of employees: 45, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Software and manufacturing engineer (three years)
Talati now runs First Resonance, a Los Angeles-based startup that makes manufacturing software for hard-tech companies building things like air taxis and nuclear reactors. Talati found that SpaceX's unique talent pool and hard-charging disposition led to results. "The mindset wasn't if something could be done, but when," he said.
Tom Mueller, founder and CEO of Impulse Space
Tom Mueller Impulse Space Total raised: $525 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2021
Key investors: Linse Capital, DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, RTX Ventures, DCVC, Airbus Ventures, Spring Tide, First Principles Group, Balerion Space Ventures, Tamarack Global, Trousdale Ventures.
Number of employees: More than 350, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Mueller was at SpaceX for nearly 19 years and last served as propulsion CTO.
Impulse Space builds spacecraft that move satellites and other cargo between different orbits.
SpaceX paved the way for many innovations in the space industry today, Mueller said. Among the lessons he learned: "the importance of building a great team and the value of an optimistic mindset — being willing to push beyond what people think is possible is the best way to break new ground and advance the industry."
Neel Kunjur, cofounder and CTO of K2 Space
Karan Kunjur and Neel Kunjur (right) K2 Space Total raised: $450 million, according to the company
Founding date: June 2022
Key investors: Altimeter Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, First Round, Alpine Space Ventures, Redpoint, T. Rowe Price
Number of employees: 200, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Neel Kunjur worked at SpaceX for about 5 ½ years, mostly recently as a senior avionics systems engineer for Dragon 2.
K2 Space builds large satellites that can operate across multiple orbits. Neel Kunjur cofounded the company with his brother, Karan.
"In many ways, SpaceX was an 'engineering bootcamp' where I was able to rapidly take on more responsibility than I ever thought possible," Neel Kunjur said. "That level of ownership translates well to being a founder, and the exposure to extremely high-caliber engineers helps with building talented teams."
Josh Clemente, cofounder and CEO of Levels
Josh Clemente Levels Total raised: $57 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2019
Key investors: a16z, Trust Ventures, Shrug.
Number of employees: 42, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Clemente worked at the company for about 5 ½ years as a lead life support systems engineer.
Levels lets users track their metabolic health with real-time glucose monitoring, labs, and personalized coaching.
SpaceX ingrained a mindset of accountability, said Clemente. "The zero-jargon environment encouraged clarity of thought and communication, so people at every layer can follow context and contribute."
Harry O'Hanley, founder, chairman, and president of Long Wall
Harry O'Hanley Long Wall Total raised: $500 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2017
Key investors: Venrock, Lockheed Martin, Lynett Capital, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, and others.
Number of employees: About 75, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: O'Hanley was at SpaceX for about four years and last served as manager of Falcon 9 integration and test.
Long Wall builds missile defense systems. The company started out as ABL, and was focused on commercial launch before pivoting to missile defense in 2024, O'Hanley said.
"The takeaway I appreciate most from SpaceX was learning to be a live player and quickly take on large challenges I'd never seen before," he said. "By constantly being put in this position, you develop a framework, intuition, and disposition to do so confidently. Building a company is exactly this — continuous novel challenges that you can't always anticipate."
Jonny Dyer, cofounder and CEO of Muon Space
Jonny Dyer Muon Space, Inc. Total equity raised: $136.2 million, according to the company
Number of employees: Around 200, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Dyer was an engineering intern at SpaceX in the early 2000s.
Muon Space builds satellite fleets to collect and deliver data about the Earth, including climate and security data.
"When I was there in the super early days (2003, 2004) it really was existential for the company and we didn't know if we'd make it," Dyer said of his time at SpaceX. He added that the team was "executing violently to try and make it."
"As a founder, you're constantly context-switching, whether it's hardware, software, team dynamics," he continued, "and SpaceX helped train me to be fluent in all of it."
Troy Astorino, cofounder and CTO of PicnicHealth
Troy Astorino Lukas Schulze/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images Total raised: More than $100 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2014
Key investors: Amplify, Felicis, B Capital, Y Combinator.
Number of employees: About 100, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Astorino was at SpaceX for about five months, working as a software engineer on guidance, navigation, and control.
PicnicHealth centralizes medical records, helping patients manage their care and also providing life-science companies with anonymized data for research.
"It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes [SpaceX] uniquely successful — rapid build-test cycles, first-principles thinking, relentless efficiency, and obsessive focus come to mind," Astorino said. "It's a north star for how I think about PicnicHealth. Healthcare is notoriously hard to change, but so is getting to space."
Nathan Silvernail, cofounder and CEO, and Huade Tan, cofounder and CTO, Plantd
Nathan Silvernail Plantd Total raised: $42 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2021
Key investors: American Family Ventures
Number of employees: 70, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Silvernail, engineering manager for crew and Cargo Dragon (seven years); Tan, senior life support systems engineer (five years, 10 months)
Plantd is a startup in North Carolina that turns perennial grasses into building materials that the company says are carbon-negative and rival traditional plywood.
"SpaceX was basically when school really started," Silvernail said. "In university, you really only get to learn fundamentals with some hands-on stuff that you do in your free time. SpaceX gave me the opportunity to focus on developing my engineering skills while getting a massive amount of responsibility right off the bat."
Sunghyun Park, cofounder and CEO of Rebellions
Sunghyun Park Photo courtesy of Rebellions Inc. Total raised: About $460 million, according to the company
Founding date: September 2020
Key investors: Arm, Samsung, Kindred Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Saudi Aramco (via Wa'ed Ventures), SK Hynix, SK Telecom, Pavilion Capital, Korea Telecom, and others.
Number of employees: More than 270, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Park worked at SpaceX for over a year as a Starlink ASIC design engineer.
Rebellions makes energy-efficient chips and software to run AI systems.
"At SpaceX, I learned the value of being uncompromising when it comes to engineering excellence and ambition," Park said, adding that "we believe real progress starts with those willing to take on what others avoid."
Robert Rose and Juerg Frefel, CEO and CTO, Reliable Robotics
Robert Rose Reliable Robotics Total raised: $134 million, according to the company
Number of employees: 150, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Rose, director of flight software (5½ years); Frefel, senior hardware development manager (about 9½ years)
Reliable Robotics makes software that automates aircraft flight, from taxi and takeoff to landing. Rose says his experiences working on government certification processes at SpaceX and Tesla taught him to operate in highly regulated industries.
"Reporting directly to Elon," he said, "taught me a lot about business and management, but it really was my extended time spent navigating a complex government bureaucracy (and enjoying it) that uniquely qualified me for starting Reliable."
Ryan Westerdahl, cofounder and CEO, Turion Space
Ryan Westerdahl Turion Space Total raised: $57 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2020
Key investors: Washington Harbour Partners, Giant Step Capital, Forward Deployed Venture Capital, Veterans Ventures, Aurelia Foundry, Y Combinator
Number of employees: 125, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Dynamics engineer (eight years)
Turion Space makes micro-satellites with seniors to monitor objects in space. The company has been awarded a $15 million contract from the US Space Force. At SpaceX, Westerdahl learned to "be like water, learn fast, operate hardcore — and to keep going."
Will Bruey, cofounder and CEO of Varda Space Industries
Will Bruey Courtesy of Varda Space Industries Total raised: $329 million, according to the company
Number of employees: More than 170, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Bruey worked at SpaceX for almost five years, and last served as a spacecraft operator and systems officer.
Varda is a space manufacturing company that takes advantage of the benefits of microgravity to process materials in orbit — including pharmaceuticals and fiber optic cables — then brings them back to Earth.
"It is helpful to think of your company as a living organism," Bruey advised other aspiring founders, adding that "you don't control every aspect of its nature or environment, and it needs the nurture and guidance to be healthy, happy, and effective."
Robert Pinkerton, cofounder and CTO, Vori
Robert Pinkerton Vori Total raised: $27.9 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2019
Key investors: Greylock, South Park Commons, YCombinator
Number of employees: 55, according to the company
Role at SpaceX: Vehicle systems engineer (one year)
Vori makes software that manages analytics for small- and mid-sized supermarkets.
Launching the demo of the Falcon Heavy rocket and deploying 21 satellites at SpaceX taught Pinkerton "what a focused, mission-driven team can achieve when the bar is set extremely high," he said.
Brian Manning, cofounder and CEO, Xona Space Systems
Xona Space Systems Total raised: Over $150 million, according to the company
Founding date: 2019
Key investors: Craft Ventures, Future Ventures, Trimble, Toyota Ventures
Number of employees: 69, according to PitchBook
Role at SpaceX: Responsible engineer, thrust structure (two years)
Xona Space Systems makes hyper-precise satellite navigation software. In June, the company raised $92 million in a Series B round led by Craft Ventures.
SpaceX challenges commonly-held assumptions that limit progress, Manning said. "That mindset stuck with me. The most impactful companies are able to take things that seem impossible and change the world's perception to believing it is not only possible but inevitable."
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Geoff Weiss You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Geoff Weiss is a senior reporter on Business Insider’s tech team, where he writes about AI startups and Y Combinator, the intersection of AI and the media industry, and workplace dynamics within top AI labs and chip companies.Previously, Geoff was on the media desk, covering YouTube and Netflix, and themes like the intersection of Hollywood and the creator economy. His work on Netflix’s video podcasting ambitions and Mr Beast’s lessons for Hollywood won second and first prize, respectively, at the 2025 LA Press Club Awards.Prior to joining Business Insider, Geoff was the senior editor of Tubefilter and a staff writer at Entrepreneur. He graduated from New York University with a degree in English Literature.He can be reached at [email protected], on Signal @geoffweiss.25, and on LinkedIn. Have a tip? Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.Selected stories:Nvidia crushed its quarter — and CEO Jensen Huang said in a leaked all-hands that 'the market did not appreciate it'Nvidia will foot the bill for Trump's new visa fees. Here's what CEO Jensen Huang told staff.Massive AI salaries and RTO are fueling a real estate boom in San Francisco: 'It's going to rain money'The AI talent wars are ricocheting across startups. Here's how they're competing with Big Tech.
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SpaceX's valuation has grown exponentially since its 2002 founding. Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Nearly 25 years ago, a mariachi band played at a SpaceX party while Elon Musk posed for a photo. The rocket company's head count was single digits back then. Today, it's over 22,000.
SpaceX started with two long-shot goals: make rockets cheaper to launch and, eventually, send mankind to Mars.
More than two decades later, Elon Musk's space company has decisively accomplished the first, and went public on Friday at a historic $1.8 trillion valuation. The trading milestone followed years of fiery explosions, reusable-rocket breakthroughs, astronaut flights, and the rise of Starlink, its golden goose satellite-internet business.
From the scrappy startup days to fiery launches (and plenty of explosions) and catching a returning rocket in giant mechanical pincers, these photos and videos show SpaceX's rise to IPO juggernaut.
2002: SpaceX is bornUsing part of the fortune he made from PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 in an El Segundo, California, warehouse. The company sought to challenge entrenched players in the rocket industry — including Lockheed Martin and Boeing — and make space travel less expensive.
Those dreams had a meager beginning.
"SpaceX was less than 10 people back then," Musk wrote on X. "We didn't even have office furniture."
2002-2006: building the Falcon 1
Musk leans on a Falcon 1 rocket during an interview in 2004. Paul Harris/Getty Images SpaceX developed its first space-bound rocket, the Falcon 1, between 2002 and 2006. It cost about $100 million for the company to design and build.
2003: A Washington DC displaySpaceX trucked its first Falcon rocket across the country and displayed it outside the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, in December 2003.
The rocket display on Independence Avenue was one of the first stunts that introduced the fledgling startup to federal lawmakers.
2006-2008: The first three launches fail
SpaceX's first three attempts to launch the Falcon 1 rocket failed. Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images The Falcon rocket's maiden voyage in March 2006 ended in failure because a fuel-line leak caused an engine fire. The ill-fated flight lasted around one minute.
The Falcon's next two attempts also failed at liftoff, pushing the company to the brink of collapse.
2008: First successful Falcon launch
Falcon 1's first successful launch happened on Omelek Island in 2008. Axel Koester/Corbis via Getty Images On September 28, 2008, Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit. SpaceX flew Falcon 1 once more, successfully launching RazakSAT on July 14, 2009, its final Falcon 1 mission.
My video from the Hawthorne office of the final Falcon 1 launch (first ever success with deployment). This is one of those startup moments you never forget, and why you get into tech in the first place. 7/13/09. pic.twitter.com/nhQWelLdOQ
— Brian Singerman (@briansin) June 12, 2026 2010: Falcon 9 and Dragon
Onlookers take pictures as the Falcon 9 lifts off. Matt Stroshane/Getty Images SpaceX followed Falcon 1 with the much larger Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon, a spacecraft developed first to carry cargo to orbit and later adapted to carry astronauts.
2012: Dragon reaches ISS
The SpaceX Dragon successfully docked with the ISS. Michael Paulsen/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft reached the International Space Station on May 25, 2012, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with and berth at the orbiting laboratory.
2015: First successful landing of a Falcon 9 after an orbital launch
SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 first-stage booster at Cape Canaveral in December 2015 after launching satellites to orbit.
2016: Falcon 9 explosion
A Falcon 9 rocket exploded on a Florida launchpad during a preflight test in September 2016, when methane propellant was ignited. The blast destroyed the rocket and its payload, including satellites from Facebook.
2016: First successful drone ship landing
In April 2016, SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on an ocean drone ship for the first time. NASA via Getty Images SpaceX had already proven it could land a Falcon 9 booster back on solid ground. In April 2016, it pulled off a harder trick: landing one on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean after launching a Dragon cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station.
The landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You showed SpaceX could recover boosters, even on missions where the rocket did not have enough fuel left to return to land.
2018: Falcon Heavy and Starman
Elon Musk sent his Tesla Roadster to space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018. SpaceX via Getty Images The Falcon Heavy rocket tugged a Tesla Roadster carrying a driver-side mannequin nicknamed "Starman" (named after the David Bowie song) into space.
The cherry-red 2010 Roadster was once Musk's daily driver before it was launched out of Earth's atmosphere.
2019: Starlink satellite launch
SpaceX launched the first large batch of Starlink satellites in 2019, beginning the buildout of a satellite-internet network that later became one of the company's core businesses. George Rose/Getty Images SpaceX launched its first large batch of Starlink satellites in May 2019, sending 60 internet-beaming spacecraft into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
2019: Starship reveal
SpaceX revealed the Starship vehicle design in 2019. SpaceX In September 2019, Musk first revealed a towering stainless-steel Starship prototype in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship, paired with its Super Heavy booster, was designed to be a fully reusable transportation system.
SpaceX hopes the vehicle is capable of carrying people and cargo to orbit, the moon, Mars, and beyond.
2020: First crewed launch
Doug Hurley (left) and Bob Behnken (right) were the first two humans to crew a SpaceX flight. Joe Raedle/Getty Images SpaceX hurled NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station in May 2020, marking the first time the company had sent people to orbit.
The Demo-2 mission also restored NASA's ability to launch astronauts from US soil for the first time since the space shuttle retired in 2011.
2021: First private SpaceX customers go to space
Inspiration4 crew member Sian Proctor waves to a crowd from inside a Tesla Model Z. She joined Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, and Chris Sembroski on board SpaceX's first civilian flight to space. Joe Raedle/Getty Images In September 2021, SpaceX launched Inspiration4, a three-day orbital mission crewed entirely by private citizens. Billionaire Jared Isaacman (now the NASA administrator) commanded the flight, joined by Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux, and Chris Sembroski aboard a Crew Dragon capsule.
The mission circled Earth. You can watch their journey in the Netflix documentary "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space."
2024: Move to Texas
Musk said in 2024 that SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas. Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images Musk, increasingly frustrated with California politics, moved his rocket company to Texas in 2024.
The announcement underscored how central South Texas had become to SpaceX's future. What began as a remote testing ground for Starship had grown into the company's main hub, with launch towers, production facilities, and a rapidly expanding local footprint.
2024: Starship booster catch
SpaceX made history by returning the Heavy Booster to its launch site. It was caught by a series of metal arms called "chopsticks." SpaceX/Getty Images In one of SpaceX's most audacious moves yet, the company caught a returning Super Heavy booster with the launch tower's mechanical arms for the first time in October 2024.
Seriously, watch the video for this moment — it's worth it.
BREAKING: SpaceX just successfully caught its Starship Super Heavy rocket booster in mid-air for the third time!
They parallel parked a building! pic.twitter.com/TyhTS9p6td
In February 2026, SpaceX acquired Musk's AI startup xAI, tying the rocket company more closely to another piece of Musk's business empire. credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired xAI, Musk's artificial-intelligence startup. The move folded several major pieces of his business empire — also including X, formerly known as Twitter — into the rocket company.
May 2026: Starship's first V3 test flight
Starship V3, the world's most powerful rocket, took off from Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images SpaceX launched Starship Flight 12, the upgraded version of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster, from Starbase, Texas, on May 22, 2026. The test marked the first test flight of the company's V3 vehicles and Raptor 3 engines. SpaceX describes Starship as the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
The flight showed SpaceX was continuing to push toward a fully reusable giant rocket system. The Starship upper stage reached space and completed a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Still, the flight had problems. The Federal Aviation Administration required SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation after an issue involving the Super Heavy booster during its return over the Gulf of Mexico after stage separation. A return to flight depends on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. The FAA said there were no reports of public injury or damage to public property.
June 2026: SpaceX IPO
SpaceX went public on June 12, 2026. Brendan McDermid/Reuters The once-nearly bankrupt SpaceX hit the public market with a valuation of $1.8 trillion.
"It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever," he said during a speech on Friday. "If people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, 'Man, you must be smoking some really good crack, because I think this company is going to fail.'"
He said he gave SpaceX a less than 10% chance of succeeding.
“It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever.”
Only in America. Congratulations to @elonmusk @SpaceX. This is the American Dream 🇺🇸💪🚀 pic.twitter.com/YFytt6Ajtk
— Katherine Boyle (@KTmBoyle) June 12, 2026
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Ben Shimkus is a reporter for the Business News desk. He writes about cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's also held staff writing positions at The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU with a Master's in journalism in 2024. Email Ben at [email protected] or message him privately on Signal at bshimkus.41.
ToplineThe investment case for the SpaceX potentially extends far beyond rockets. Although the company is best known for its Falcon 9 orbital and Starship experimental heavy-lift reusable rockets, its Starlink megaconstellation already numbers more than 10,000 satellites, while future plans could include orbital AI data centers and even space-based solar power systems. Yet if those ambitions are realized, they could trigger one of the biggest changes ever made to humanity’s view of the heavens — as well as to astronomy, navigation, migration, feeding and reproduction across hundreds of species, according to Dark Sky.
The satellite-filled sky that is now a reality — and getting more crowded every week! (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Key FactsSpaceX currently operates more than 10,000 active Starlink satellites, roughly two-thirds of all working satellites in orbit. Amazon Leo, its competitor, has 300 satellites in orbit and plans to launch 3,200, according to Space.com.
In January, SpaceX filed documents asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch one million satellites to create a megaconstellation of orbital data centers to meet the demand for AI computing power.
Research has found that satellites and other orbiting objects could increase the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10% above natural levels. That means each image taken by a billion-dollar professional telescope would lose 10% of data due to satellite trails, an issue identified by reports from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
The Night Sky Is Becoming More CrowdedWhen SpaceX launched the first Starlink satellites in 2019, astronomers raised concerns about bright streaks crossing telescope images. Since then, the constellation has grown into the largest satellite network ever deployed. Today, SpaceX operates more than 10,000 Starlink satellites, accounting for roughly two-thirds of all active spacecraft orbiting Earth. The company plans to expand it to around 34,400 satellites. For investors, that growth demonstrates the success of Starlink as a global communications network serving more than 10 million customers. For astronomers, it marks the beginning of a new era in which commercial infrastructure increasingly occupies the night sky.
From Broadband To Orbital InfrastructureThe investment case for SpaceX increasingly depends on what comes after Starlink. Supporters argue that Starship — which successfully completed its 12th flight on May 22 after being grounded for seven months — could dramatically reduce the cost of reaching orbit, making entirely new industries possible. Among the concepts now being discussed are orbital data centers designed to support artificial intelligence and large-scale space-based power systems.
Earlier this year, SpaceX sought permission to deploy a constellation that could eventually support orbital AI computing infrastructure on an unprecedented scale. SpaceX filed documents asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch a million satellites to create a solar-powered AI data center, something also being considered by Google, Axiom Space and Starcloud. Satellites look set to change from being communications tools to infrastructure. Separately, Reflect Orbital revealed plans to reflect solar rays to Earth at night using 50,000 mirrors.
This long-exposure image shows a trail of a group of SpaceX's Starlink satellites passing over Uruguay as seen from the countryside some 185 km north of Montevideo near Capilla del Sauce, Florida Department, on February 7, 2021. (Photo by MARIANA SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Why Astronomers Are AlarmedIn March, the U.K.’s Royal Astronomical Society warned that SpaceX’s orbital data center plans and the Reflect Orbital concept could have profound consequences for astronomy.
According to the society, brightness estimates suggest that thousands of satellites could become visible to the naked eye, outnumbering the stars visible from many locations on Earth. The group also warned that observations with major facilities could lose significant amounts of scientific data because of satellite trails.
However, it’s radio astronomy that will suffer the most. Radio observatories designed to detect extremely faint signals from deep space now have to cope with interference from large satellite constellations.
Reflect Orbital’s plans also alarmed the Royal Astronomical Society, which said each beam could be four times brighter than the full moon, with the overall system potentially making the night sky three to four times brighter.
A New Kind Of Light PollutionFor most of human history, the stars were among the few truly universal sights on Earth. The spread of electric lighting in the twentieth century dramatically reduced access to dark skies, but its effects remained largely local.
Orbital infrastructure is different. Since satellites operate above national borders, their effects are potentially global. Unlike ground-based light pollution, they cannot be avoided simply by moving to a darker location. Dark skies will go extinct.
“These proposals would not only have a disastrous impact on the science of astronomy, they would also hinder the right of everybody on Earth to enjoy the night sky. That is unacceptable,” said Dr. Robert Massey, Deputy Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society. “The stars above us are a valued part of human heritage – deploying more than one million exceptionally bright satellites would utterly destroy this and permanently scar the natural landscape.”
Further ReadingForbesInside SpaceX’s Orbital Economy: AI Data Centers And Wireless PowerBy Jamie CarterForbesSpaceX IPO Is A $1.77 Trillion Bet On An Orbital EconomyBy Jamie CarterForbesWhy Is SpaceX Launching History’s Biggest Rocket During A Fuel Crisis?By Jamie CarterForbesNASA Changes Moon Plan: Landing Now Depends On SpaceX Or Blue OriginBy Jamie CarterForbesSpaceX Space Junk Could Crash Into The Moon In August, Scientist SaysBy Jamie CarterForbesNASA Picks Bezos’ Blue Origin Over SpaceX For Key Moon Base MissionBy Jamie Carter
SummaryCompaniesMarkets love nifty labels, lately focusing on the Magnificent 7 tech stocksThe rise of SpaceX and a pair of upcoming AI IPOs could prompt a changeInvestors and analysts say shorthand is valuable as a gauge of market leadershipJune 13 (Reuters) - SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab roared into markets this past week with a valuation of more than $2 trillion, surpassing two members of Wall Street's "Magnificent Seven" and raising a key question: Does the Mag 7 name still fit? And if not, what should replace it?
The IPO, the biggest in U.S. history, vaulted SpaceX's value above two Mag 7 members: CEO Elon Musk's other company, Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, and Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab. With trillion-dollar contenders such as OpenAI and Anthropic waiting in the IPO wings, the club may soon need a name change, analysts said.
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With SpaceX's arrival, "it becomes very hard to keep using Mag 7 as the clean shorthand for market leadership because one of the most important companies in the world would immediately be outside the label," said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum Equities.
These groupings are not formal market categories, but shorthand labels coined by strategists, investors and the media to capture the hottest big stocks at a given moment. Such monikers have a long history, ranging from the "Nifty 50" of the 1960s and 1970s to the "Four Horsemen" of the late 1990s dot-com boom.
The SpaceX IPO has set off a race to devise the next cool acronym.
One sobriquet gaining traction on X is "MANGOS", which stands for Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, OpenAI and SpaceX. That grouping is far from standardized, with some interpreting the "A" as Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, currently the third most-valuable U.S.-listed firm.
"We are already referring to it internally and the industry is picking up on it as well," said Aga Kuplinska, SVP of product development at Tidal Financial Group, which helps asset managers roll out ETFs.
Dan Boardman-Weston, CEO at BRI Wealth Management, is going another way, suggesting "Magna Atoms" - the Magnificent Seven plus SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic.
A line chart with the title 'The Magnificent Seven versus the market'THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDEThe "Magnificent Seven" term was coined by BofA Global Research Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett in late 2023 to describe seven heavyweight technology-related stocks: Nvidia, Apple, Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab.
With an AI boom driving stock markets to record highs and the sudden appearance of new trillion-dollar companies, the leaderboard is often in a state of flux.
In a May 22 note, BofA wrote about the "AI Big 10," adding Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab, Micron Technology (MU.O), opens new tab and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab to the original seven, reflecting the semiconductor rally of the past year. That group accounts for more than 40% of the S&P 500's weight, according to LSEG data.
The labels have evolved before - from FANG to FAANG to the Magnificent Seven - each tracking shifts in companies that led the market.
FANG covered Facebook, Amazon, Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab and Google. FAANG added Apple, and Magnificent Seven dropped Netflix while adding Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, each shift reflecting changes at the top of the market.
"It's been Mag 7 for several years now. Maybe the markets are excited for something new," said Dustin Thackeray, chief investment officer at Crewe Advisors.
To be sure, not everyone expects the old label to ride off into the sunset.
"The Magnificent Seven label is not going away," said Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Investments. "It is too embedded in how investors and the media view large-cap tech leadership. What you will likely see is additive terminology rather than replacement."
Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan, Purvi Agarwal, Twesha Dikshit and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sweta Singh, Colin Barr, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and David Gaffen
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Macro economist Henrik Zeberg has warned that SpaceX’s (NASDAQ: SPCX) valuation following its record-breaking IPO has reached levels comparable to the peak of the Dot-com bubble.
The warning comes after SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history, raising $75 billion by pricing shares at $135. The stock opened at $150, pushing the company’s market capitalization above $1.77 trillion and reportedly nearing or surpassing $2 trillion during early trading.
At the close of markets on Friday, SPCX was trading at $160, up almost 20% for the day
SpaceX stock price chart. Source: Google Finance According to Zeberg’s analysis, shared in an X post on June 13, SpaceX is trading at approximately 119 times projected 2026 sales, surpassing the peak valuation multiple reached by Yahoo during the dot-com boom in 2000.
The comparison centers on the price-to-sales ratio, a metric used to measure how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of revenue.
Zeberg’s analysis shows SpaceX trading at roughly 119 times estimated 2026 sales, slightly above Yahoo’s peak multiple of about 118 times sales before the dot-com bubble burst.
SpaceX stretched compared to peers The analysis also highlights how far SpaceX’s valuation has stretched relative to other technology companies. Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) trades at about 63 times sales, while Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) trades at roughly 20 times sales, making SpaceX the most highly valued company in the group on a price-to-sales basis.
The SpaceX IPO marks a dramatic increase in valuation for the aerospace and satellite communications company. Before going public, SpaceX’s private-market valuation had already climbed from approximately $350 billion in late 2024 to significantly higher levels through subsequent funding rounds.
The company’s rapid rise has been driven by continued growth in its reusable rocket business, the Starlink satellite internet network, and expansion into related technologies.
The Dot-com bubble of the late 1990s was marked by investors assigning extreme valuations to high-growth technology companies based on future growth expectations rather than traditional financial metrics.
Many internet firms reached unsustainable price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratios before the bubble burst, resulting in steep declines in market value. Several prominent companies lost more than 90% of their valuations during the subsequent crash.
Zeberg argued that SpaceX’s current valuation reflects a similar level of investor enthusiasm. Although the company has generated substantial business growth and trailing revenue of approximately $18 billion to $19 billion, its current market capitalization implies exceptionally high expectations for future expansion.
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SummaryCompaniesSpaceX allocated a record 20% of IPO shares for retail investorsRetail demand drove strong first-day trading, with SpaceX topping retail purchase rankingsMany retail investors received fewer shares than requested but expressed satisfaction and loyaltyNEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) - Individual investors eager for a piece of SpaceX's (SPCX.O), opens new tabmega IPO on Friday scrutinized their e-mail inboxes and brokerage accounts to see just how big a slice of the pie they received - while others went straight to the open market to scoop them up on day one.
From the start, SpaceX and its underwriters had determined to set aside as much as 30% of the shares sold to the public in the IPO for retail investors. That meant that whipping up interest and buying orders from this group was crucial. Getting an allocation to the stock was competitive, and some retail investors just dived into the market to buy.
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"I'm very happy with what I managed to get," said Joseph Gutheinz, who retired from NASA as an investigator to practice law. Gutheinz did not think of trying to submit an IPO allocation request but managed to buy $100,000 of shares at $161 on Friday.
"It's a great investment," he said. "Win or lose, I'm happy to be invested at all."
Retail buying was one of the factors responsible for the pop in the price of SpaceX shares, which surged 19% on their first day of trading, said Art Hogan, investment strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston.
"This allocation to retail is far and away the highest I've ever seen in my decades on Wall Street," Hogan said. "It's the latest, greatest shiny object for retail investors to get into right now."
The deal became "the largest and most subscribed offering on our platform to date," said a spokesman for SoFi, one of the retail brokerages involved in the selling group. The spokesman added that all individuals who met SoFi's criteria received an allocation of the deal.
Net buying of SpaceX shares accounted for about 4% of all single-stock retail turnover on Friday, totaling $453 million and running at 3.5 times the pace of runner-up Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab.
"Retail investors have shown up for SpaceX in a big way," said Vanda Research, a firm that tracks the activity of self-directed individual investors and that spent much of Friday monitoring trading in the high-profile IPO. In the first 20 minutes of trading, SpaceX shares had vaulted to second place in the ranks of most actively purchased stocks by retail investors and by mid-afternoon was in first place, dwarfing its rivals, Vanda reported.
ALLOCATIONS FALL SHORTAllocations, however, for some retail investors fell short of what they sought.
"Requested 250, received nothing," one of the rare disgruntled would-be investors reported on a Reddit chat devoted to figuring out who had received allocations. "Requested 555, got 10" and "requested 1,000, got 85," other Reddit posters noted.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, whom the IPO has made the world's first trillionaire, pledged in 2024 that if any of his still-private companies went public in the future, he intended to make sure that retail investors, especially holders of his other public company, Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, would have priority in accessing the new deal.
"Loyalty deserves loyalty," he said in a post on X at the time.
Already, some fans of Musk and SpaceX are providing further signs of their commitment and conviction.
Clint Sorenson, chief investment officer of Ascentis Asset Management, told Reuters he offered all of his firm's clients who had invested in SpaceX via private investment vehicles before the IPO the opportunity to hedge their exposure to the stock now that it is publicly traded. No one took him up on the idea, he said.
"Everyone wants to keep holding and celebrating right now; no one wants to even think of hedging their risk because they believe in the story so much," Sorenson said.
Reporting by Suzanne McGee in Providence, Rhode Island, Manya Saini, Akash Sriram and Laura Matthews in New York; Additional reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Megan Davies and William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Akash reports on technology companies in the United States, electric vehicle companies, and the space industry. His reporting usually appears in the Autos & Transportation and Technology sections. He has a postgraduate degree in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds. Akash's interests include music, football (soccer), and Formula 1.
Manya covers the most influential U.S. financial institutions, from Wall Street’s largest banks and card networks to leading asset managers and fintech companies. She also reports on late-stage venture capital fundraises, initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges and regulatory developments shaping the cryptocurrency industry. Her work appears across the finance, markets, business and future of money sections of the Reuters website. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Delhi and a master’s in journalism from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.
MIAMI, June 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Defiance ETFs, a leader in thematic and leveraged exchange-traded funds, today announced that trading in shares of the Defiance Daily 2X Space ETF (Cboe BZX: SPCL) was temporarily halted by Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. (the “Exchange”).
Trading was temporarily halted at 10:45 A.M. EDT today.
SPCL’s trading halt was the result of the Exchange exercising its broad discretionary authority to halt trading in a listed ETF, as authorized by Exchange rules. According to the Exchange, it currently anticipates lifting the temporary halt of trading in SPCL shares and resuming trading no earlier than Monday, June 15, 2026.
During this temporary halt, investors are advised that while shares of SPCL cannot be bought or sold on the secondary market, the underlying portfolio assets remain secure and are not impacted by this temporary halt of trading initiated by the Exchange.
Defiance ETFs believes the temporary halt of trading in SPCL shares was in response to today’s significant market price volatility surrounding SpaceX’s completion of its initial public offering, and the commencement of trading in shares of SpaceX Class A common stock on Nasdaq (NASDAQ: SPCX).
Defiance ETFs will issue an update as soon as the Exchange authorizes the resumption of trading in shares of SPCL. For real-time updates on the status of SPCL, please monitor the Exchange’s Issuer Portal (SPCL) or contact your financial advisor.
For full fund details, the prospectus, holdings, and performance current to the most recent month-end, visit defianceetfs.com/spcl or call 833.333.9383.
An investment in SPCL is not a direct investment in the underlying securities. The Fund is not suitable for all investors. The Fund is designed to be utilized only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily leveraged (2X) investment results, understand the risks associated with the use of leverage, and are willing to monitor their portfolios frequently. The Fund is not intended to be used by, and is not appropriate for, investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios. The Fund pursues daily leveraged investment objectives, which means it is riskier than alternatives that do not use leverage. The Fund magnifies the performance of the Target Portfolio and is designed strictly for short-term use. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund’s performance will be the result of compounded daily returns, which is very likely to differ from 200% of the return of the Target Portfolio over the same period. It is possible that investors could lose their entire principal within a single trading day.
Important Disclosures
Defiance ETFs LLC is the ETF sponsor. The Fund’s investment adviser is Tidal Investments LLC (“Tidal” or the “Adviser”).
The Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectus contain this and other important information and can be obtained by calling 833.333.9383 or by visiting defianceetfs.com/spcl. Please read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing.
An investment in the Fund involves a high degree of risk. An investor could lose the full principal value of his or her investment within a single day.
Strategy and Reconstitution Risk. The Fund is actively managed and, per its recently amended Prospectus, may reconstitute its portfolio to consist of exposure to a single Space Company security in response to a “Material Space Event” – defined to include an initial public offering of a company, such as SpaceX, which the Adviser determines to be a significant participant in the space economy. SpaceX’s IPO, a Material Space Event, will result in the Fund holding all or a predominant portion of its portfolio in instruments providing exposure to SpaceX shares, subjecting existing and future Shareholders to a substantially more concentrated and potentially more volatile investment portfolio due to such an event. Fund investment results following a reconstitution in response to a Material Space Event may differ materially from prior results and the Fund may as a result temporarily deviate from its daily targeted exposure level. The Fund’s prospectus does not require the Adviser to provide advance notice before a reconstitution; however, the Fund’s Target Portfolio is published daily on its website at www.defianceetfs.com/spcl.
An investment in the Fund is not an investment in SpaceX. The Fund seeks to obtain exposure to SpaceX Class A common stock, and to other Space Company securities, through derivatives, not by holding the underlying securities directly. Fund holdings are subject to change at any time and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
Focused Portfolio and Concentration Risk. The Fund may seek exposure to one or a limited number of Space Company securities, including SpaceX. Given the Fund’s exposure is concentrated in a one or a limited number of underlying stocks, such as SpaceX, the Fund is subject to the price movements, business results, regulatory developments, and other risks specific to SpaceX or other Space Companies. The Fund is significantly less diversified than traditional ETFs, and its performance is more volatile than a fund seeking exposure to a broader market sector or seeking to track a broad-based securities index.
Leverage, Compounding and Daily Reset Risk. The Fund seeks daily investment results equal to 200% of the daily performance of a Target Portfolio consisting of one or a limited number of Space Company securities, which may include or consistent entirely of SpaceX Class A common stock due to the Material Space Event. The Fund obtains exposure in excess of its net assets through leverage, which magnifies both gains and losses. The Fund’s returns over periods longer than a single day will likely differ, in amount and possibly direction, from its stated daily target. For periods longer than a single day, the Fund will lose money if its Target Portfolio performance is flat, and it is possible that the Fund will lose money even if its Target Portfolio’s performance increases. The Fund is intended for short-term use and is not appropriate for investors who do not intend to actively monitor and manage their portfolios.
Newly Public Company Risk. SpaceX has recently completed, or is in the process of completing, its initial public offering. The first day of trading in a newly public company’s securities frequently involves extraordinary market activity and may differ significantly from subsequent trading days. For example, trading in SpaceX common stock may be characterized by substantial price volatility, rapid price movements, significant differences between the IPO price and the opening market price, wide bid-ask spreads, trading imbalances, limited liquidity, trading halts, and other market disruptions. These conditions may make it difficult for market participants to value SpaceX common stock and may contribute to significant fluctuations in the market price of the Fund’s Shares.
SpaceX-Specific Risks. The Fund’s exposure to SpaceX stock will subject it to risks specific to SpaceX, including its expected status as a controlled company with voting power concentrated in founder Elon Musk through Class B common stock (10 votes per share), the Fund’s dependence on Mr. Musk’s services and reputation, and the execution risk associated with unproven or novel technologies such as the Starship program, next-generation Starlink satellites, and orbital AI initiatives.
Initial Trading Day IPO Exposure Risk. The Fund expects to seek exposure to the performance of SpaceX common stock measured from the opening market price of SpaceX common stock on its first day of exchange trading. The Fund will not seek to provide exposure to the difference between the IPO offering price and the opening market price of SpaceX common stock. There can be no assurance that the Fund will be able to obtain, maintain, or rebalance its desired level of exposure to the performance of SpaceX common stock during its in initial day of trading.
Derivatives Capacity Constraints Risk. Because SpaceX will be a newly public company, the markets for swap agreements, options contracts, and other instruments that the Fund may use to obtain leveraged exposure may be limited, illiquid, volatile, costly, or unavailable. Counterparties may impose exposure limits, exchanges may impose position limits or other restrictions, and market participants may be unwilling or unable to provide the Fund with the desired level of exposure. These constraints may increase tracking error, cause the Fund to return substantially less than its desired daily leveraged exposure to the performance of SpaceX stock, or prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. These risks may be particularly pronounced during the period immediately following an IPO, when trading volumes, liquidity conditions, derivatives availability, counterparty capacity, price discovery, and market volatility may be highly uncertain.
Derivatives and Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund uses swap agreements and/or listed options contracts to obtain economic exposure to its Target Portfolio securities, which are subject to counterparty, liquidity, valuation, correlation, and leverage risks, as well as the risk that a derivative will not perform as expected. The Fund is classified as non-diversified and may invest a larger portion of its assets providing exposure to a single issuer.
Tax Risk. The Fund’s use of swaps and other derivatives may produce taxable income, including ordinary income and short-term capital gains, which are generally taxable at higher rates than long-term capital gains.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. Fund holdings and exposures are subject to change at any time and should not be considered recommendations to buy or sell any security.
Defiance Daily 2X Space ETF is distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.
About Defiance ETFs
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Defiance ETFs Announces Temporary Trading Halt of the Defiance Daily 2X Space ETF (SPCL) on Cboe BZX... Defiance ETFs, a leader in thematic and leveraged exchange-traded funds, today announced that tradin...
SpaceX completed its record-breaking IPO this past week, ending its first day up 19%. Beyond the headline deal, a handful of other sizable IPOs priced, and one major issuer joined the pipeline. Two IPOs are currently scheduled to list in the week ahead, although some smaller issuers may also join the calendar throughout the week.
Shares of SpaceX (SPCX +19.17%) surged on Friday after the rocket and satellite technology leader made its stock market debut.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
An epic IPO SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) was perhaps the most highly anticipated trading event of the year. The Elon Musk-led space exploration company sought to raise a whopping $75 billion dollars to fund its audacious growth initiatives, which include placing data centers in low Earth orbit, building a city on the Moon, and, eventually, establishing a colony on Mars.
To raise that hefty sum, SpaceX sold more than 555 million shares of its stock to investors at an IPO price of $135 per share. Yet demand for the space titan's stock was through the roof, vastly exceeding supply.
SpaceX's stock price, in turn, opened at $150 per share when it debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday. It quickly rose as high as $176.52 before ending the trading day at $160.95. That closing price placed its market capitalization at a stunning $2.1 trillion.
Investors should brace for volatility While SpaceX's long-term plans are straight out of a sci-fi movie, its near-term goals will also require impressive technological execution. The space explorer intends to expand its popular Starlink satellite-based internet service, advance its aggressive rocket development timelines, and further its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build-out.
In the coming days and weeks, shareholders should expect SpaceX's stock price to move violently in both directions, as investors react to what are likely to be breathtaking successes and heartbreaking failures as we embark on this space odyssey.
Longer term, SpaceX could reach unimaginable heights if it can fulfill its awesome growth potential.
Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Nasdaq. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SpaceX opened at $150 per share in its Nasdaq debut on Friday, making Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire and vaulting the company past a $2 trillion market capitalization. Here's how experts are reacting to one of the most historic IPOs in market history.
The time has finally come. On Friday, Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +19.17%) -- popularly known as SpaceX -- hit the Nasdaq. While the offering price remained fixed at $135 per share, shares had popped by 25% to about $175 as of 2:30 p.m. ET on the initial public offering (IPO) day. It closed the session at $160.95.
At this point, SpaceX's market capitalization is about $2.1 trillion -- making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. Clearly, retail and institutional investors alike rushed in with overwhelming enthusiasm once the stock hit the public exchanges.
Candidly, this kind of momentum is not uncommon for hot IPO stocks. In SpaceX's case, the day-one surge reflected broad confidence in the company's leadership across space exploration, satellite networks, and the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) business.
The question smart investors are asking is whether or not SpaceX stock can maintain its premium valuation. History offers a strikingly clear answer.
Why do IPO stocks pop when they first start trading? When it comes to IPOs, investors can be particularly eager to secure early positions in what they perceive as a category-defining business. A double-digit percentage opening-day gain is a strong signal that demand significantly exceeded the volume available shares at the offering price.
Strong debuts frequently occur with innovative, high-profile companies that capture public imagination. SpaceX has done that in spades. Yet smart investors understand that early momentum does not always translate into smooth sailing down the road. Rather, extreme valuation expansion often creates elevated expectations that amplify volatility.
These patterns underscore how IPO pricing and early trading behavior serve as real-time gauges of collective optimism as opposed to reliable evidence of a company's sustained value creation.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
A look at IPO stocks after one year of trading Brad Gerstner is one of the most lauded investors in Silicon Valley. He's been an early backer of numerous unicorns in the tech space -- most recently, leading Anthropic's $65 billion Series H financing round. Gerstner's firm, Altimeter, recently published an insightful graphic that illustrates the returns of high-profile IPO stocks during different periods after they listed. Historical records of public listings comparable to SpaceX's paint a mixed picture.
Across the 30 companies in Altimeter's report, the median 12-month return was negative 9% while the average return was 14%. Less than half of the stocks in the cohort generated a positive return one year after going public.
This distribution highlights that gains tend to cluster among a smaller number of standout businesses. Perhaps even more telling is the year-one maximum drawdown data, which captures the deepest interim declines from peak prices. Most companies on the list experienced drawdowns of at least 40%, with the median and average drops both hovering around 55%.
Some specific cases highlight the range of outcomes. Palantir Technologies delivered a jaw-dropping 153% return at the 12-month mark, yet suffered a 53% drawdown at one point during that year. More recently, CoreWeave generated an 87% gain, but along the way endured a 65% decline.
By contrast, when Facebook (now Meta Platforms) went public in 2012, the stock declined by 31% over its first 12 months of trading and had a 54% maximum drawdown. Meanwhile, Uber fell 21%, with a drop of 68% at one point.
Taken together, these examples demonstrate that one-year performance post-IPO often varies widely, and that the most consistent feature of such stocks is volatility.
While nobody can say for certain where SpaceX stock will be trading next summer, applying the patterns explored above suggests its trajectory will likely combine meaningful upside potential with substantial interim swings likely to occur between earnings reports.
Given the company's innovative profile and the strong share demand, SpaceX could behave more like long-term outperformers such as Palantir, Meta, or CrowdStrike.
At the same time, the whole data set clearly indicates that nearly all comparable IPOs experience meaningful drawdowns from their peak prices within the first year of trading. With that in mind, smart investors should anticipate periods of sharp reversals even if the longer-term direction remains positive.
With only a small minority of recent high-profile tech IPOs in positive territory after one year of trading, the prudent outlook should center on volatility rather than steady, linear appreciation. Fundamentals, execution on key projects -- especially in AI -- and broader macro conditions will ultimately shape SpaceX's outcome. Above all else, history shows that a strong debut alone does not shield any stock from meaningful corrections along the way.
SpaceX employees react to companys IPO Employees at SpaceXs facility in Hawthorne, California, share their thoughts on the companys initial public offering. (Splash News for Fox News Digital)
SpaceX's record-setting IPO is creating a financial windfall for thousands of the company's current and former employees who received stock as part of their compensation.
Workers who hold stock in non-public companies are subject to restrictions that can keep them from selling those shares under most circumstances before an IPO occurs. Once the stock goes public, it starts a timeline under which they can begin to sell some of those shares as so-called "lock-up periods" gradually allow employees to sell shares in tranches that expand over time.
The ranks of SpaceX workers who will see an influx of wealth as a result of the IPO include not only those who design the rockets and satellites that have made the company famous, but also baristas, janitors and other workers who helped keep the company running.
FOX Business spoke with workers outside of SpaceX's facility in Hawthorne, California, about their plans for the monumental IPO turning into a reality.
SPACEX MAKES HISTORIC DEBUT; MUSK SOLIDIFIES STATUS AS WORLD'S FIRST TRILLIONAIRE
SpaceX workers and former employees who received stock options have an opportunity to cash in a windfall following the company's IPO. (Reuters/Veronica G. Cardenas/File Photo)
One SpaceX employee, who said that he's a process planner, said that he wants to "try to stay healthy" and that the IPO is "a beautiful thing… I mean, Elon is the best. Go Elon!"
Another SpaceX employee said that, "I've been a millionaire for a while, but it's always nice to have money. It'll be great when the lock-up period is out, of course, and we can actually sell some of it and that'll feel a little more into the wealth, but it's a great day."
Juan Hernandez, who previously worked as a welder at SpaceX, told CBS News that when he was first hired by the company in 2015 he was offered $10,000 in stock. He explained that it "wasn't a big deal" to him at the time and, "I didn't know it was gonna be this big, at this point."
Ticker Security Last Change Change % SPCX SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP. 160.95 +25.95 +19.22% Hernandez, who now works at Blue Origin after a 10-year stint at SpaceX, told CBS that he has around 6,500 SpaceX shares that would represent a nearly $880,000 windfall based on the IPO listing price of $135 a share. He added that giving employees stock options encourages them to "perform a lot better because, I mean… it's their company as well."
He went on to tell the outlet that he wants to maintain a strong work ethic after the IPO and plans to keep working, and expressed gratitude to Musk for "making all these lives much better and meaningful for their families as well."
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire following the IPO. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)
SPACEX SET A NEW RECORD FOR IPOS: THESE ARE THE WORLD'S 5 LARGEST
The Wall Street Journal reported that J. André Lavoie, a 63-year-old former SpaceX engineer who moved to Italy five years ago, has shares valued at over $28 million based on the IPO price. Lavoie plans to use the funds to renovate a hotel he purchased and is considering helping others in the community transition from heating their homes with burning wood to cleaner heating sources.
"I don't want to just die with a pile of money in the bank," Lavoie told the Journal. He added that the rise in the value of the shares has caused him to reconsider his plans. "Every year the shares have been going up so radically it keeps messing up my life plans."
The Journal also spoke with 27-year-old Maryellen Musselman, who joined SpaceX in 2022 and worked on a ship used in retrieving rocket parts from the company's launches that splashed down off the coast of Florida.
Musselman used 10% of her pay to purchase additional shares during the two years she worked at SpaceX and said that while she's unsure of how quickly she'll look to sell, saying it'll likely be "an 11th-hour decision."
SpaceX's IPO was the largest in history, with a raise of about $75 billion. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)
SPACEX'S FIRST EMPLOYEE SAYS HISTORIC $1.7T IPO WILL BE 'LIFE-CHANGING' FOR THOUSANDS OF WORKERS
She wants to use the money to help her start a ship repair business in Chesapeake, Virginia, saying that, "Mariners are not usually stock owners in their companies, they're not always under benefits."
Tom Mueller, who was hired as SpaceX's first employee in 2002 and led projects including the Merlin Engine that powers the Falcon 9 rocket, the Raptor Engine that powers Starship and other key propulsion systems, told FOX Business' "The Claman Countdown" on Thursday that the IPO would be life-changing for employees.
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"Elon always said that 'Your salary is one thing, but it's the equity that's gonna be worth something.' And we are all like, 'Yeah, okay someday,'" Mueller said. "That day is here. It's great."
There were a lot of ways that SpaceX's initial public offering could have gone wrong. Instead, the company bucked Wall Street norms, pulled off the biggest IPO ever and raised $75 billion, according to a regulatory filing, while orchestrating a successful first day as a publicly traded company.
What are investors really buying when they buy SpaceX? Julie Hyman, Brian Sozzi, and Justus Parmar discuss the future of the space economy, Mars colonization, Rocket Lab, AI, and the long-term vision behind SpaceX.
The SpaceX initial public offering was expected to deliver the kind of drama usually reserved for a summer thriller. Instead, it proved to be something far more disappointing: rather ordinary.
A collective sigh of relief swept across Wall Street after trading for SpaceX's landmark Nasdaq launch went smoothly, setting a new template for the trading firms and exchanges that are bracing for the giant IPOs of OpenAI and Anthropic later this year.
The whirlwind Day One of public trading of SpaceX (SPCX +19.17%) shares has come to a close. If you like edge-of-your-seat excitement with lots of twists and turns, it was about as thrilling a day as you could ask for.
If you like big share price gains, it was more of a mixed bag.
Here's how Day One investors fared on the first trading day of SpaceX stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
IPO investors cashed in SpaceX offered an unprecedented amount of IPO shares to retail investors. More than 20% of the IPO shares were ultimately allocated to non-professional investors through five brokerages, priced at $135/share. With over $100 billion in demand, however, many investors only received a fraction of the shares they requested.
However, those who got ahold of them were already winners when the stock began public trading at 11:46 AM, debuting on the Nasdaq at $150/share. By 11:52 AM, about six minutes later, they had surpassed $160/share. At 11:55 AM, they briefly hit $168.75/share before dropping again. At 12:04 PM, they dropped to $155.42/share before heading back upward to peak for the day at $176.52/share at 1:10 PM.
The rest of the trading day, however, was a different story.
Later investors crashed out The share price had a slow and bumpy descent for most of the afternoon, bottoming out at $157.46/share at 3:53 PM, before rallying slightly to close at $160.95/share. That gives the company a $2.1 trillion market cap, which should make CEO Elon Musk one very happy trillionaire.
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Unfortunately for most investors, if you didn't manage to luck into some IPO shares, and you didn't buy during the first few minutes SpaceX shares were publicly trading, you probably lost money today. Because after 11:52 AM, the stock only spent about 17 minutes of the trading day below its ultimate closing price (12:03 PM to 12:05 PM, and 3:40 PM to 3:55 PM). And even then, it was less than $6/share below that closing price, so gains were minimal, though the stock did rise by a few percentage points in after-hours trading.
Even though the marquee number from SpaceX's first trading day shows the stock up 19.2%, it's important to remember that only IPO investors actually notched that much of a gain. Lightning-fast market investors who picked up shares at the opening price of $150/share would be up just 7.3% for the day, and those who waited just three minutes to buy shares at 11:49 AM are only up 1%. Most other investors are in the red.
Image source: Getty Images.
Of course, we here at the Fool are long-term investors, so we know that SpaceX's day one performance won't matter much in the long run. However, it can serve as a cautionary tale that hot stocks making big upward moves on hype alone -- like meme stocks or highly anticipated IPOs -- can only move upward for so long. Buying into such a stock too late is worse than not buying in at all.
And sometimes "too late" only takes three minutes to arrive.
CNBC's Jim Cramer said the successful debut of SpaceX could pave the way for more AI-related offerings and help create a more constructive backdrop for stocks. He said investors should watch housing starts, retail sales, and an analyst meeting from SLB for clues on interest rates.
