The biggest IPO of all time has already happened.
On June 12, 2026, SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq at an offer price of $135, under the ticker SPCX. It raised roughly $75 billion, more than any company before it.
The share price has been anything but calm since then. After peaking at $225.64, the stock fell to around $105.
If you're thinking about buying in, today's quote alone won't tell you enough.
In this article, I'll walk you through the valuation, the stock, and the share price since the SpaceX IPO. You'll also learn about the business model, how to buy, and the risks. Here are the key points first:
- SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026 at $135 under the ticker SPCX. After peaking at $225.64, the stock fell to around $105 and has since recovered to around $163
- At roughly $75 billion raised, it is the largest IPO of all time; by valuation, Saudi Aramco still leads at around $1.88 trillion against SpaceX's $1.77 trillion
- The key revenue driver is Starlink: $11.4 billion of the $18.7 billion total 2025 revenue comes from satellite internet
- Elon Musk owns about 48% of the shares but holds around 84% of the votes through a second share class
1. The SpaceX IPO at a glance
The key facts of the offering:
The IPO was historic. No company has ever gone public at a higher valuation. And unlike many tech IPOs of recent years, this is a business with real revenue, its own infrastructure and a near-monopoly in the rocket business.
2. The road to the IPO
From its founding in 2002 to the IPO in 2026, SpaceX came a long way. As early as 2008, the Falcon 1 became the first privately funded liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit.
For a long time afterward Musk was seen as an IPO skeptic who wanted to keep control. The merger with xAI in early 2026 and the AI arm's appetite for capital then accelerated the public listing:
The xAI merger in February 2026 was the turning point in particular. It turned the rocket builder into a conglomerate spanning spaceflight, satellite internet and AI, with a capital need to match.
3. Valuation: $1.77 trillion and how it got there
SpaceX's valuation has grown more than tenfold in five years, from $100 billion in October 2021 to around $1.77 trillion at the IPO.
The chart below shows the rise across the last private rounds up to the market value after the first trading day. At around $2.1 trillion it sits above the $1.77 trillion at the offer price, because the stock closed at $161 instead of $135:
For context: at $1.77 trillion, SpaceX is worth more than most companies in the world. Measured against 2025 revenue of $18.7 billion, that is a price-to-sales ratio of about 95. It is a valuation that prices in a lot of future growth, mainly from Starlink and the AI arm.
If you want to know whether SpaceX is worth more than Tesla, the answer is in the market capitalization. At the October 26, 2026 close, SpaceX was worth around $2.0 trillion, ahead of Tesla but behind Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia. The full comparison with large companies is in the SpaceX statistics.
4. SpaceX stock price since the IPO
The first trading day was a spectacle. SpaceX opened at $135 and closed at $161, up 19%. In the days that followed, the stock kept climbing to a peak of $225.64, before a broader tech sell-off and mounting worries about the AI arm's losses sent it sharply lower.
4.1 Offer Price and Closing-Price Milestones
At the end of July SPCX traded at around $108, and in early August, around the first quarterly report, it hit a low of around $105, well below the offer price. It has recovered since. On October 12 SPCX closed at around $163, after an intraday high of around $176 on October 6.
Most recently, on October 26, it closed at $146.90. The key closing prices at a glance:
gradually.ai4.2 Daily Closes and Trading Volume
The daily closes show the full path. On June 16 the stock closed at $211.39, its highest close. By August 5 it had fallen to $108.27, its lowest close, and stood at $146.90 on October 26.
The bars show trading volume. About 519 million shares changed hands on the first day, lately mostly 70 to 120 million.
gradually.aiThe analyst picture is telling: the average twelve-month price target sits at around $216 according to TipRanks, well above the current price. The range is huge, from $75 (a bear who sees a massive overvaluation) to $450. In other words, the market does not agree at all on what the stock is worth.
The volatility says it all. In late June the stock dropped 16.4% in a single session, its worst day since the IPO.
5. Business model: where does the revenue come from?
SpaceX has long stopped making money from rocket launches alone. By far the biggest chunk is Starlink, its satellite internet.
5.1 Revenue Mix 2025
Starlink alone accounts for well over half of the $18.7 billion 2025 revenue. Launch services and the new AI arm, xAI, split the rest, as the chart below shows:
5.2 Starlink Subscriber Growth
Starlink is also the biggest growth driver. The number of subscribers has exploded, from around 1 million in 2022 to more than 10 million in early 2026:
It is exactly this subscription business that makes SpaceX so interesting for investors. Recurring revenue is more predictable than the project-driven rocket business, and as a global network Starlink has barely any serious competition. For more numbers on the company, see my article on SpaceX statistics.
6. Financials: revenue, loss and investment
Behind the growth story sits a balance sheet with two faces. Revenue has grown steadily over the past three years.
The bottom line tells a different story. SpaceX turned its first net profit in 2024, just $0.8 billion, then slipped back into a loss in 2025 as the AI arm scaled up. The relapse traces mainly to xAI, which has been on the books since the merger. The figures below are consolidated and include xAI, as recast in the S-1:
The loss masks the operating picture. Starlink already makes money, around $4.4 billion in operating profit in 2025, while the AI arm burns about $6.4 billion. That appetite shows up in capital spending too, which climbed almost fivefold in just two years and now goes almost entirely to AI data centers, as the chart below shows:
7. Who owns SpaceX? The control question
One point every investor should understand: SpaceX has a dual-class share structure. According to the final prospectus, Elon Musk holds around 84.4% of the votes after the IPO, because his Class B shares carry ten votes each. In the section on the controlled-company exemption, the prospectus puts the figure at 82.4%.
7.1 Economic Ownership After the IPO
The economic stake is lower. Calculated from the ownership table, Musk owns about 47.8% of all shares after the IPO (including unvested restricted shares and options exercisable within 60 days):
gradually.ai7.2 Voting Power After the IPO
The same table shows the voting power. Here Musk has a clear majority, while the rest of the shareholders share less than 15%:
gradually.aiFor you as a shareholder, that means you buy a share of the economic success but practically no say. Musk makes the strategic decisions alone. That can be an advantage (clear vision, fast decisions) but it is also a risk (see section 10).
8. How to buy SpaceX stock
Since the IPO, SPCX is an ordinary Nasdaq stock. All you need is an account with a broker that offers US equities, which practically every common provider does:
In practice, you search your account for the ticker SPCX, check the listed ISIN and can then buy the stock, often as a savings plan too. Mind the trading venue: on European exchanges the price can differ slightly from the Nasdaq quote.
Whether a particular broker already lists SPCX is worth checking case by case, since the listing is still young.
9. SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI: the three big IPOs compared
SpaceX is not the only mega-IPO this year. With Anthropic and OpenAI, two of the most valuable AI companies are also heading for the public markets. Their private valuations come from funding rounds that Anthropic and OpenAI announced themselves. Here is how SpaceX ranks, with its market and revenue data from CNBC, stockanalysis.com and Sacra:
SpaceX is by far the largest of the three and the only one already listed. For details on the other two, see my articles on the Anthropic IPO and the OpenAI IPO.
10. Risks for investors
As spectacular as the IPO was, SpaceX stock is anything but a sure thing. These points are worth knowing:
- Extreme valuation: A price-to-sales ratio of around 95 leaves little room for disappointment. A lot of future growth is already priced in.
- Musk's control: With around 84% of the votes, a single person decides the strategy. For such a polarizing founder, that is a concentration risk.
- Starship is still in testing: The most recent test flight (IFT-13 in July 2026) deployed operational Starlink satellites for the first time and survived splashdown intact, after an FAA investigation into the previous flight, IFT-12 in May 2026. The next growth chapter rides on this rocket.
- High volatility: On the reference day alone, the price swung by more than $30 within a single day, and by early July the stock had already fallen more than 35% from its peak. Once lock-up periods expire, additional shares can hit the market.
- Concentration on Starlink: 61% of revenue depends on one business unit. Regulatory or technical headwinds there would hit the company hard.
My take: the SpaceX IPO is a historic event and the company is in a league of its own technologically. But the valuation assumes that Starlink, Starship and the AI arm all deliver. Anyone getting in should be aware of the swings and only invest money they can afford to lose. This is not investment advice, just context.
