SpaceX IPO closes up 19% and delivers the world’s first trillionaire
Quick Answer
SpaceX's IPO debuted at $135 and surged 19%, marking a significant milestone as it creates the world's first trillionaire.
Quick Take
This successful launch reflects strong investor confidence in the company's future prospects and its pivotal role in the space industry.
Key Points
- SpaceX's IPO price started at $135 and closed 19% higher.
- The IPO marks the creation of the world's first trillionaire.
- Strong investor interest indicates confidence in SpaceX's future.
- This debut highlights SpaceX's pivotal role in the space industry.
- The successful launch may influence future tech IPOs.
📖 Reader Mode
~3 min readSpaceX lifted off on its first day as a public company, immediately jumping to $150 a share after it began trading on the Nasdaq, around 11% higher than the $135 figure at which it officially priced its IPO on Thursday.
The stock price reached as high as $176 in midday trading, pushing the company’s market capitalization to nearly $2.3 trillion, before ultimately settling 19% higher at $160.95 as markets closed.
The stock pop isn’t a surprise. The company’s IPO was oversubscribed by 4x, according to Bloomberg, meaning many institutional investors didn’t receive allocations and are likely buying shares on the open market.
The demand for SpaceX is also a function of its small float, with only about 4% of shares available for public trading, while early investors and employees hold the rest. SpaceX also successfully lobbied a number of indexes (like the Nasdaq 100) to change their inclusion rules. The company will now join those indexes in a matter of days, not months, increasing demand for SpaceX stock before other large institutions and funds start automatically buying it.
Robinhood said it has seen “record-breaking” traffic on its trading platform Friday in the hours after SpaceX’s historic public markets debut.
The debut is also one of the largest windfalls in the history of venture capital. The returns to Founders Fund, which invested $600 million in the company and owns a 3% stake, are estimated at more than $50 billion at the IPO price of $135, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz’s stake is worth more than $10 billion, and Sequoia’s is valued at over $20 billion.
Debuting at $150 made founder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The New York Times has reported that around 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees will become millionaires, while around 400 will become centimillionaires.
The original version of this article was published at 11 a.m. ET. The article has been updated with a new share price and other information.
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Marina Temkin is a venture capital and startups reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she wrote about VC for PitchBook and Venture Capital Journal. Earlier in her career, Marina was a financial analyst and earned a CFA charterholder designation.
You can contact or verify outreach from Marina by emailing marina.temkin@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at +1 347-683-3909 on Signal.
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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