NEW YORK, June 13 (Our New York News) — SpaceX’s first day as a public company produced two documented financial results: the rocket and satellite company raised $75 billion in its initial public offering, and Nasdaq trading pushed its market value above $2 trillion by the close, according to the company’s offering terms and market data.
The same trading session also moved Elon Musk into a new category of paper wealth. Forbes and Bloomberg wealth calculations placed Musk’s net worth at roughly $1.05 trillion to $1.11 trillion after SpaceX shares began trading June 12 under the ticker SPCX. Those estimates made him the first person publicly tracked by major wealth indexes to pass $1 trillion in net worth.
The finding rests on several pieces of evidence: SpaceX priced the IPO at $135 a share, the offering raised $75 billion, Nasdaq trading opened around $150, and the stock closed near $161 after reaching about $176.50 during the session. The closing price implied a company value above $2 trillion, compared with an IPO valuation reported around $1.77 trillion to $1.8 trillion.
For investors, the first-day move meant shares bought at the IPO price were worth more by the end of the session. For SpaceX, the completed offering moved a large private company into the public markets and gave it tens of billions of dollars in new capital. For Musk and other existing holders, the trading price created large paper gains tied to stock and options, not cash proceeds unless those holdings are sold.
Musk’s own SpaceX position was one of the most important parts of the valuation. At the IPO price, published estimates using share and option counts attributed to Forbes put his SpaceX stake at roughly $688 billion. Fox Business put the figure at about $690 billion. At higher trading prices during the first day, Bloomberg and other wealth calculations placed the same position much higher, in the range of about $766 billion to nearly $800 billion.
Those numbers vary because they are based on different price points and different treatment of options. The IPO price of $135 produces one value. The opening price near $150 produces another. The closing price near $161 raises it again. The intraday high near $176.50 produces the largest estimate. The underlying wealth estimates also depend on how each index values Musk’s other holdings, including Tesla.
The public record available from the first day does not resolve every detail. Reports described a dual-class or special share structure that leaves Musk with outsized control, but the ownership and voting figures conflict. Some accounts put his ownership near half of SpaceX, others at 42% or 38%, and one reported about 85% voting power. The underlying offering document or share-count filing was not included in the records available for this review, so the exact control percentage cannot be stated as a settled fact here.
SpaceX was founded in 2002. Musk said the company was going public now to help fund plans for more satellites, data centers in space and, eventually, a human settlement on Mars, according to the Associated Press account of his statement. Musk marked the start of trading with a ceremonial bell-ringing from Starbase in South Texas, while the listing itself took place on Nasdaq, part of the New York financial markets.
The size of the deal was unusual even before trading began. A $75 billion raise at a valuation near $1.8 trillion made the IPO one of the largest public offerings ever reported. After shares rose in the open market, public investors were valuing SpaceX at more than twice the level estimated by Morningstar analysts.
Morningstar, described by AP and PBS as independent of investment-banking fees, estimated SpaceX’s value at about $780 billion and called the IPO “significantly overvalued.” That estimate was far below both the IPO valuation and the closing market value. The gap shows the central risk in the first-day trading record: public buyers were paying prices that assumed SpaceX is worth far more than at least one independent research firm’s estimate.
The offering also changed who is exposed to SpaceX’s future results. Before the IPO, gains and losses were largely held by Musk, employees, private investors and other early backers. After the Nasdaq debut, public-market investors also hold the risk that the company’s market value could rise or fall with launches, satellite demand, financing needs, regulation and broader stock-market conditions.
The records reviewed support the broad conclusion that SpaceX’s IPO turned Musk’s SpaceX holdings into one of the largest publicly priced personal stakes in the world and pushed wealth-index estimates of his total fortune above $1 trillion. They do not support a single exact figure for his ownership, voting control or net worth. Those figures remain estimates that move with the stock price and depend on the share and option counts used by each wealth index.
