Shares of aerospace and artificial intelligence (AI) giant SpaceX surged 30% in midday trading Friday, following the largest initial public offering (IPO) in financial history that just made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Trading under the ticker symbol SPCX on Nasdaq, the stock opened at $150 and quickly climbed near $175, significantly outperforming the $135 IPO price finalized Thursday evening. The record-shattering debut raised $75 billion through sales of roughly 555.6 million shares, establishing a market valuation of $1.77 trillion. The listing positions SpaceX as the eighth-largest company globally, leapfrogging corporate titans like Saudi Aramco ($1.75 trillion).

“I think people buying in now are doing so on a dream of future success, and just the notion that Musk can accomplish things he’s said, like habitation on Mars and data centers in space,” tech analyst Jack Gold said in an email. “Frankly, I’m skeptical that the stock price is worth the massive PE (I think it’s around 100 or so), and that Musk can really accomplish all he says he can in a reasonable timeframe. But he certainly is great at putting out a vision that many believe. I have some real issues with his vision of datacenters in space, and I don’t think he can accomplish much of what he claims. As for Mars, there are so many hurdles to do that, I’m not sure it’s possible.”

Analyst Jack Poller is reminded of Google’s IPO “where people want a piece of the brand and what drives the price of the stock is not the value of the underlying company but the pure availability of a share of stock.”

“It took a few years before Google stock reverted to reflect the value of the company,” he said. “Musk’s philosophy is that by shooting for the moon (literally with SpaceX) you solve problems you wouldn’t have and do so at a cost that you wouldn’t contemplate otherwise. He has changed the world and created at least three new industries. That he creates a fourth is a bet many are willing to make.”

The historic market debut has reshaped the global wealth leaderboard, officially crowning Musk as the world’s first trillionaire.

According to the company’s S-1 filing, Musk maintains tight command over the entity, holding a 42% equity stake alongside 82% of voting control via Class B shares. With SpaceX shares hovering near $158 during the midday churn, Musk’s space equity alone reached $869.4 billion. Combined with his 717 million shares of Tesla Inc. —valued at approximately $278.2 billion — Musk’s net worth crossed the $1.147 trillion threshold, a figure that excludes his private holdings in Neuralink and The Boring Company.

While SpaceX is widely recognized for its Falcon rockets and Starlink satellite broadband network, the core driver of its premium valuation is AI.

Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired xAI, the parent company of the social media platform X and the Grok chatbot. In its regulatory filings, SpaceX pitched an unprecedented $28.5 trillion total addressable market, boldly projecting that $26.5 trillion of that total will stem from enterprise AI applications and infrastructure, such as orbital AI data centers.

The strategy gives public market investors a rare avenue to back a mega-scale AI venture outside of established Silicon Valley giants like Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Google parent Alphabet Inc.

Institutional and retail demand for the listing reached a fever pitch ahead of Friday’s opening bell. The offering drew a staggering $250 billion in total demand, rendering it nearly four times oversubscribed. Retail investors alone placed orders exceeding $100 billion, while asset management giant BlackRock single-handedly secured a $5 billion stake.

The sheer magnitude of the IPO forced major index providers, including Nasdaq and FTSE Russell, to implement fast-entry rule alterations to accommodate the stock ahead of standard timelines. However, S&P Dow Jones Indices resisted the pressure, keeping its rigid eligibility rules intact and blocking SpaceX from fast-track entry into the benchmark S&P 500 retirement index for now.

Despite market euphoria, SpaceX’s debut has drawn sharp criticism on financial and regulatory grounds. The company posted Q1 2026 revenue of $4.69 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $1.127 billion, but it also logged a whopping $4.9 billion net loss for 2025 due to aggressive capital expenditures on Starship and AI infrastructure.

Meanwhile, because Class B shares carry 10 votes to Class A’s single vote, SpaceX qualifies as a “controlled company,” exempting it from several standard Nasdaq governance oversight rules.

Days before the launch, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a 12-page letter to the SEC requesting an IPO delay, citing severe vulnerabilities regarding investor protections and Musk’s “unprecedented level of power” over shareholders.

Morningstar analysts issued a warning to clients this week, estimating the firm’s true fundamental value at just $63 per share, less than half of its $135 pricing.

As trading continues into Friday’s close, Wall Street analysts are closely tracking whether the initial 30% pop will hold, or if the stock will succumb to typical post-IPO volatility as early backers eye the exit.