SpaceX IPO takeaways: SPCX closes at $161, jumping 19% after record debut

SpaceX rallies further after markets close

SpaceX Executives ring the Closing Bell at the Nasdaq on the debut of their IPO on June 12th, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

SpaceX shares continued to climb in extended trading on Friday, hours after markets closed. The stock was up close to 3.5% at $166.76 as of 6:30 p.m. ET, after closing at $160.95. That lifted the market cap by about another $80 billion to $2.2 trillion.

Roughly 16 million shares changed hands in post-market trading, adding to the 500-pus million shares traded during the day.

—Ari Levy

AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, formerly of Tesla, congratulates SpaceX

Andrej Karpathy Director of AI Tesla a keynote speaker at the Train AI conference at Pier 27 in San Francisco, Ca. on Thurs. May 10, 2018.

Michael Macor | San Francisco Chronicle | Getty Images

Andrej Karpathy, a prominent AI researcher and former Tesla leader, congratulated the SpaceX team in a post on X.

“In awe of SpaceX and its story – past, present and the future,” Karpathy wrote. “You can think about it in 10+ different ways and continue re-blowing your mind in circles. Huge congrats to the team!”

Karpathy joined Anthropic in May. He previously co-founded OpenAI and served as director of AI at Tesla, where he led the computer vision team for Tesla Autopilot.

—Ashley Capoot

Former Nasdaq chief says he’d ‘definitely bet’ that OpenAI and Anthropic go public this year

People gather near a SpaceX advertisement outside the Nasdaq MarketSite, on the day of their initial public offering (IPO) in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Robert Greifeld, former chief of the Nasdaq, said he “would definitely bet” that OpenAI and Anthropic follow SpaceX to the public market this year.

SpaceX “represents a stock that’s trading not on fundamentals,” Greifeld told CNBCnoting that the company is performing “on the aspiration of what’s possible with human spirit going forward in time.”

“In many ways, you can say that this was the most difficult sell for the market, because Anthropic and OpenAI have a more clear and present business model,” Greifeld said. “I think the window is open, SpaceX has opened it, and you’ll see other companies certainly flying through.”

Jonathan Vanian

NYC Mayor Mamdani calls to ‘tax the rich’ after Musk’s new trillionaire status

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks during a “Reverse Town Hall” at the 32BJ SEIU HQ on October 17, 2025 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani weighed in on SpaceX’s historic IPO, which minted Musk as the world’s first trillionaire.

“Reason #1,000,000,000,000 why we should tax the rich,” Mamdani wrote in a post on Xreplying to an article about Musk becoming a trillionaire.

Mamdani is the latest politician to spotlight wealth inequality amid SpaceX’s stock debut. Earlier on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote in a post on X“We need a wealth tax.”

—Annie Palmer

Possible caution for what’s to come with SpaceX, says Michael Tanney

SpaceX Executives ring the Closing Bell at the Nasdaq on the debut of their IPO on June 12th, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

It’s a monumental day for SpaceX. But is there enough demand “to absorb multiple large capital raises,” asks Michael Tanney, CEO ofinvestment advisory firm Pereon Wealth.

Tanney cites data from Truist Wealthwhich shows 30 IPOs, such as Alibaba, Meta and Shopify, suffering within the first year.

“I experienced this firsthand at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management during Facebook’s IPO. The environment was similarly frenzied,” he added.

Still, that doesn’t take away from the exciting day.

“The SpaceX IPO reinforces three themes: AI is extraordinarily capital intensive, capital formation is shifting toward equity, and the Elon Musk premium is real,” he said.

— Ananya Chetia

JPMorgan Chase to hold post-IPO celebration for deal team and SpaceX employees

Light is displayed at the top of JPMorgan’s headquarter building, 270 Park Avenue, to mark SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO), as a collaboration between JPMorgan and SpaceX, in New York City, U.S., in this handout photo taken in June.

Max Touhey | Via Reuters

JPMorgan Chase will host members of its deal team and around 250 SpaceX employees for a post-IPO celebration at the bank’s headquarters in New York City.

SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other executives will attend. JPMorgan will light up the building at dusk, according to a spokesperson.

–Ashley Capoot

‘Hard pill to swallow:’ Analyst can’t understand SpaceX valuation

SpaceX displayed outside the Nasdaq as the company launches their IPO on June 12th, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Keith Snyder, a senior analyst at CFRA Research, told CNBC that he remains skeptical of whether SpaceX is really worth $1.77 trillion, the IPO valuation.

“It was a hard pill to swallow even there,” Snyder said in an interview on “Closing Bell.” “The growth levels that would be required within the AI segment and with premium multiples, which simply have to be astronomical, kind of borderline comical, to get to the valuations we’re talking about.”

With the market cap picking up later in the day, Snyder said in an interview, “I’m doubling down that this is overvalued at its current price.”

In a research note published shortly after its public debut, Snyder assigned SpaceX a sell rating and a 12-month price target of $115, significantly below its IPO price of $135. The stock hit a high of $176.52.

“At the end of the day, the analyst in me can’t get to the numbers that they’re talking about,” Snyder added.

— Annie Palmer

SpaceX sees record retail order activity in IPO debut, Citadel says

Citadel Securities, the largest retail wholesaler, said SpaceX’s listing drew the highest IPO auction order activity ever among retail investors.

Booming activity continued in live trading. SpaceX is the most bought stock by individual investors on Friday, according to VandaTrack data, with net buying running at more than 3.5 times the level of Nvidiawhich is second. Retail turnover in SPCX has already reached $453 million, representing roughly 4% of all single-stock retail turnover today.

The early buying puts SpaceX on track to surpass Coinbase’s first-day retail record from April 2021, when individual investors bought a net $92 million of COIN in its debut. SpaceX has already topped every other major IPO launch over the past six years, according to VandaTrack.

MacKenzie Sigalos and Leslie Picker

With SpaceX public, attention will quickly turn to OpenAI and Anthropic

Now that SpaceX is public, investors may start turning their attention to potential IPOs from OpenAI and Anthropic. Along with SpaceX, they’re companies with a “tremendous amount of growth that could be a very big part of the future,” Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson told CNBC.

But there’s a difference. Musk “has a 15-year track record of being CEO of a publicly traded company,” Luria said, giving the financial community, particularly those who “have made a lot of money in Tesla,” a reason to closely follow the story.

OpenAI and Anthropic may have cutting-edge technology, but they “don’t have that track record yet,” Luria said.

“As volatile as I expect SpaceX to be, and it’s going to be volatile, OpenAI and Anthropic may be even more volatile when they come out,” Luria said.

Jonathan Vanian

SpaceX is the newest member of the trillion-dollar club. But does it belong?

SpaceX is now the sixth most-valuable company in the U.S., officially joining the small but expanding trillion-dollar club.

But its finances suggest the rocket maker doesn’t belong. Musk’s company, after generating $18.7 billion in revenue last year, is a fraction the size of the next-smallest company by sales, Micron, which recorded over $58 billion in revenue in the past four quarters.

Also, SpaceX is very much in the red, losing $4.9 billion last year, while all of the other companies in the group are profitable. Musk’s other public company, Tesla, generated the least amount of profit in the past year, at $3.9 billion.

—Jennifer Elias

SpaceX sees huge trading volumes after debut

People walk near an advert of SpaxeX on the day of SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

SpaceX is recording massive trading volumes within hours of its Nasdaq debut.

The rocket company has traded more than 360 million shares as of shortly after 2 p.m. ET on Friday. That’s already 10 times the total volume posted by Brainsthe second-largest IPO this year, in its first day of trading.

SpaceX has traded more than 172 million shares on the Nasdaq alone, which is more than double the amount seen by Nokiathe second-most active stock on the exchange.

SpaceX is chasing Facebookwhich saw roughly 580 million shares change hands on the social media company’s first day of trading in 2012.

— Alex Harring, John Melloy

Sen. Warren slams Trump’s SEC, Musk following SpaceX IPO

US Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention on May 30, 2026.

John Tlumacki | Boston Globe | Getty Images

Sen. Elizabeth WarrenD-Mass., responded to the SpaceX IPO by calling for a wealth tax, and stronger due diligence efforts by the SEC.

in a post on XWarren wrote that Musk “just became the world’s first trillionaire,” while the typical American household would have to work more than 11 million years to make that level of wealth. “We need a wealth tax,” she said on the app, which is owned by SpaceX.

In a separate statementWarren, ranking member of the Senate’s banking committee, criticized the SEC.

“Trump’s SEC greenlit an IPO with numbers analysts have called ‘nonsensical,'” she wrote. “The world will get its first trillionaire while Americans across the country are scraping together every dollar to save for retirement. Rather than changing the rules to rush SpaceX into Americans’ retirement portfolios, index providers should ensure they do their part to protect American families’ investments. And the SEC should do its job and ensure Elon Musk does not rip off investors.”

Warren had formally asked the SEC to delay the SpaceX offering. She also reached out to stock indexesseeking information on whether SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic may have pressured them to change their rules.

—Lora Kolodny

SpaceX launch prompts ETF surge

Wall Street’s ETF machine wasted little time getting in on SpaceX.

A review of SEC filings shows at least 25 exchange-traded funds tied to the rocket and AI company had been registered by the time SpaceX shares began trading on Friday. More than half are leveraged or inverse products designed to amplify the stock’s daily moves or profit from share price declines.

The filings come from issuers including Direxion, GraniteShares and ProShares, among others, highlighting the heightened investor demand surrounding one of the most anticipated IPOs in history.

Several of the proposed funds would offer leveraged exposure to SpaceX shares. That means investors could gain twice the return when the stock rises, but also suffer twice the losses when it falls. The rush to launch SpaceX products comes as leveraged ETFs have exploded in popularity in recent yearsfueled in part by investors’ appetite for high-flying technology and artificial intelligence trades. Not all filed ETFs ultimately launch.

Considering investors’ access to the stock, expedited inclusion in major indexes and the growing menu of leveraged products, “you have three very powerful legs of the stool for the ecosystem to be trading very robustly,” Simeon Hyman of ProShares told CNBC.

Nick Wells

Here’s how SpaceX millionaires are planning to spend their new fortunes

Close up of coastline near Palos Verdes

Post_insignia | Stock | Getty Images

SpaceX’s IPO is set to mint thousands of new millionaires among the ranks of engineers and other staff who hold stock. And they’re already preparing to spend their riches.

Real estate agents in California and Texas, where SpaceX has offices, told CNBC they’ve received inquiries from SpaceX employees about buying new homes. Private jet companies Flexjet and Amalfi Jets likewise said they’ve gotten inbounds from soon-to-be SpaceX millionaires looking to celebrate the offering with a trip.

One of the most common post-IPO purchases, according to experts, is a luxury watch.

“The watch becomes a reminder of that accomplishment every time they put it on,” said Paul Altieri, founder and CEO of Bob’s Watches. “The stock certificate stays in a brokerage account. The watch goes on your wrist.”

— Hayley Cuccinello

SpaceX selling IPO-themed merchandise on X

A general view of a SpaceX building and Starship rocket ahead of the SpaceX initial public offering (IPO), in Starbase, Texas, U.S., June 11, 2026.

Gabriel V. Cardenas | Reuters

SpaceX hawked IPO-themed merchandise on X on Friday, as the company’s stock hit the Nasdaq.

Fans of the aerospace and defense conglomerate were prompted to preorder a bell shaped like the company’s Raptor engines, which are being built to lift the company’s massive Starship rocket into orbit.

Musk has previously sold investor-themed merchandise, namely “short shorts,” to taunt investors who were short Tesla in 2020.

—Lora Kolodny

SpaceX AI unit poised for revival with $60 billion Cursor acquisition

Samuel Boivin | Nurphoto | Getty Images

SpaceX has the option to acquire AI code-generation startup Cursor for $60 billion this year, or can pay $10 billion to get out of the deal.

The acquisition could revitalize the cash-burning AI unit of SpaceX, making its Grok models and tools more relevant to developers, in line with competing products from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens told CNBC in an email ahead of the IPO that he viewed the buyout as “an example of the company using ‘optionality’ in its capital deployment, which is a good thing, though these numbers are very large.”

The $60 billion sum represented a 3.4% dilution at the IPO valuation.

SpaceX has not provided its investors with details on Cursor’s customer list, momentum or revenue. Cursor’s market share declined from 41% in June 2025 to about 26% in May, according to spending data from Ramp. Anthropic now controls half of that category.

Lora Kolodny and Jordan Novet

Robinhood sees record traffic amid surge in SpaceX demand

Robinhood reported unusually high traffic Friday during early trading of SpaceX shares, as users on X posted about issues with the trading platform.

“Robinhood saw record-breaking traffic today,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. “As a result, some customers experienced latency and intermittent issues. Essential systems have recovered and our teams are closely monitoring.”

— Tanaya Machel

SpaceX IPO leaves retail investors wanting more

Some retail investors hoping to score a sizable allocation in SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO were left disappointed after receiving only a fraction of the shares they requested.

Marvin Jung, a 51-year-old retail investor, requested 1,000 shares through Robinhood but was allocated just 17 shares.

“I hate Robinhood some days,” Jung said.

The frustration was echoed across online investing forums, where Reddit users reported receiving allocations as small as one share despite strong interest in the offering.

Justin Sacco, founder of Sacco Financial, said he received 11 shares through Charles Schwab after requesting 75.

“I was hoping for a larger allocation through Schwab since I’ve been a long-term client and thought my allocation might perform better there compared to the usual experience of receiving a symbolic one-share allocation on other platforms,” he said.

After SpaceX began trading, Sacco purchased an additional four shares in the open market, bringing his position to 15 shares.

Mikey Moran, a 49-year-old trader, received 11 of the 20 shares he requested through Robinhood. Moran said he wanted exposure to what he described as “the Super Bowl of IPOs.”

The modest allocations highlight the intense demand from individual investors seeking a stake in Musk’s rocket and satellite company, one of the most anticipated public offerings in recent years.

— Yun Li and Sean Conlon

SpaceX staff wears green shoes on trading floor

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell and SpaceX executives ring the Opening Bell at the Nasdaq on June 12th, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

SpaceX staff wore green shoes on the trading floor in a nod to the IPO’s “greenshoe” option, which refers to the overallotment available for underwriters.

Musk re-shared a photo on X with the crying-laughing emoji alongside a fire emoji.

The IPO was led by Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley is leading the stabilization process.

SpaceX’s $28.5 trillion addressable market figure requires some very long-term thinking

SpaceX told investors it’s going after a gigantic $28.5 trillion total addressable market. The problem is that $22.7 billion of that is from enterprise applications, where SpaceX doesn’t currently have much going on.

“I think that there is tremendous potential for SpaceX in the space of enterprise applications,” said Arnal Dayaratna, an analyst at research firm IDC. “To be crystal clear, its positioning there right now is basically nonexistent.”

SpaceX’s AI segment provides AI models that developers can incorporate into their software. They lag behind alternatives from Alibaba, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Google, MiniMax, Tencent and Xiaomi, according to data from startup OpenRouter.

SpaceX might be able to carve out a bigger piece of the market through deal-making. In April it signed an agreement to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.

“Cursor is building its own foundation model that has a specialization in development and building,” Dayaratna said. “There’s no reason why this technology cannot be generalized to the practice of building more generally — in other words, building digital solutions — whether they’re done by developers or some other knowledge worker persona.”

In the IPO prospectus, SpaceX said that, with Teslait’s building Macrohard, which it describes as “an agentic AI platform designed to be capable of fully emulating digital workflows and augmenting human operation of computers — from coding and product development to management and entire business processes — using sophisticated autonomous agents.”

To gain significant inroads in productivity software, and compete with Google and Microsoft, SpaceX would need a much more powerful AI model, Dayaratna said.

Jordan Novet

SpaceX is one of the biggest trading events on Wall Street

SpaceX IPO indicative pricing at the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

SpaceX’s Class A volume has topped 207 million shares, with dollar volume just under $33 billion — more than the roughly $22 billion in QQQ dollar volume and $18 billion in SPY dollar volume so far today.

The stock’s session high is $168.75, up 25% from the $135 IPO price and 12.5% above its $150 opening trade.

At that high, SpaceX’s market cap reached about $2.21 trillion — putting it within striking distance of Amazon’s roughly $2.54 trillion valuation.

Robert Hum

SpaceX is going to be the largest AI hyperscaler in the U.S., says Brad Gerstner

Brad Gerstner, Altimeter Founder & CEO, speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference in NYC.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Altimeter’s Brad Gerstner, another participant in today’s IPO, is bullish on SpaceX’s potential in artificial intelligence.

“I think we can all agree Elon Musk and the team at SpaceX are as capable as anybody on the planet,” Gerstner told CNBC on the company’s ability to build up data centers.

“In a few years, they’re going to be the largest AI hyperscaler in the United States,” he added.

CJ Haddad

Early SpaceX investor on company’s new public market pressures

Asked about the new pressures SpaceX will face now that it’s a public company, Gavin Bakeran early investor in the startup, told CNBC that he expects Wall Street to understand SpaceX’s long-term vision.

Baker likened SpaceX to Amazonwhich famously communicated to investors in the years after it went public in 1994 that long-term growth was more important than short-term profits.

“I would just point you to the early days of Amazon, which was investing heavily in a business, and the stock market was very supportive of those investments, because it saw there was an ROI,” Baker said.

He said SpaceX’s internal rate of return on its Colossus 1 data center has been strong.

“When you have our IRRs like that, I think markets are generally supportive of capital investments,” he said.

— Annie Palmer

Altimeter Capital CEO: SpaceX isn’t a ‘get-rich-quick scheme’ but will have competitive returns

SpaceX’s $1.77 trillion IPO valuation is appropriate today, but the company is set up to grow in the coming years, Altimeter Capital CEO and investor Brad Gerstner said on CNBC on Friday.

He said he told his mom and siblings that it could be a good investment if they held SpaceX stock for years.

“It’s not going to be a get-rich-quick scheme, but if you want to own it for a year or two years, I think you’re going to do really well. Competitive returns from this one,” Gerstner said.

— How Leswing

Correction: SpaceX’s IPO valuation was $1.77 trillion. An earlier version misstated the figure.

Space stocks deepen losses after SpaceX debut

A screen displays the Firefly Aerospace logo during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City, U.S., August 7, 2025.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Nasdaq president says $15 billion of SpaceX raise was retail, larger than most IPOs

Nelson Griggs, President of the Nasdaq, speaking with CNBC at the SpaceX IPO on June 12th, 2026.

Adam Jeffery

Nasdaq President Nelson Griggs told CNBC that SpaceX’s opening trade came together faster and more efficiently than expected, with Morgan Stanley leading the stabilization process and the stock opening on 58 million shares at $150.

“It wasn’t Nasdaq — it was the whole community, led by Morgan Stanley stabilizing. We got to the order size they were looking to in a very efficient manner,” Griggs said. “They saw a lot of support in the book.”

Griggs said the IPO benefited from a diversified order book, including long-only investors, active traders and unusually strong retail participation. He estimated that roughly $15 billion of the raise came from retail investors, calling that allocation “larger than most IPOs” and saying Tesla’s heavily retail-owned shareholder base likely helped drive excitement around the SpaceX debut.

With the stock trading roughly 20% above its opening price shortly after the first trade, Griggs said Nasdaq was watching volatility closely, but did not see signs that trading would need to be paused under limit-up, limit-down rules.

He called demand for the offering “incredible” and said other companies preparing to go public would likely study the SpaceX listing as a blueprint for how the market can digest a mega-cap IPO.

MacKenzie Sigalos

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon congratulates SpaceX on social media

David Solomon, CEO Goldman Sachs, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22nd, 2026.

Oscar Molina | CNBC

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon congratulated SpaceX in a post on X on Friday, writing that he is proud of the “strong partnership” the two companies have built. Goldman served as the lead left bookrunner on the transaction.

“I’ve known Elon for more than 15 years, as have several of my colleagues, and it’s been incredible to see his vision come to life and to work with Gwynne, Bret, and the entire team,” Solomon wrote.

“We are excited as SpaceX enters this new chapter of its journey as a public company, and we look forward to supporting their mission of advancing the frontier of human space exploration,” he said.

—Ashley Capoot

Tesla shares decline as investors’ focus shifts to SpaceX debut

The Tesla brand logo can be seen on May 28, 2026 at a location of the car manufacturer in Parsdorf near Munich (Bavaria, Germany).

Matthias Balk | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Tesla shed about 2% on Friday, as investors’ attention shifted to the SpaceX market debut.

Elon Musk’s aerospace and defense conglomerate has surpassed a $2 trillion valuation, and is now worth more than his automaker Tesla, which had a market capitalization of about $1.2 trillion as of early Friday.

In an amended IPO filing, SpaceX said it may issue “significant equity” to fund future transactions. That sparked fresh speculation around a merger between SpaceX and Tesla.

Tesla had invested $2 billion in xAI before it was acquired by SpaceX, with those shares making it a stakeholder in SpaceX.

—Lora Kolodny

Alphabet’s stake in SpaceX hits $105 billion

Alphabet may be one of the biggest hidden winners in the SpaceX IPO. The company owns roughly 4.9% of SpaceX, a stake now worth about $105 billion — making it one of Google’s most lucrative private market bets ever.

But cashing out is not as simple as selling into the first trade. Alphabet still faces lockups, liquidity limits and a potential tax hit on any outright sale.

MacKenzie Sigalos

SpaceX opens at $150 per share

SpaceX begins trading at the Nasdaq MarketSite on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

SpaceX opened Friday at $150 per share, officially marking an approximately 11% gain over its $135 IPO price.

But that price is lower than where indications of interest showed the rocket startup could begin trading. The price was initially indicated to trading desks at $175, a price that’s more than 16% higher than where the stock ended up opening.

— Alex Harring

SpaceX first trade now at $150 per share

SpaceX’s indications of interest to trading desks now shows the first trade will come in around $150 per share. That’s down significantly from levels seen earlier in the day and the $175 price displayed initially.

The latest indications suggest that SpaceX will open with a roughly 11% increase from its IPO price of $135.

— Alex Harring

Nasdaq president on how the exchange opens a mega IPO like SpaceX

A live feed shows SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on the day of SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Nasdaq President Nelson Griggs told CNBC that opening a record-breaking IPO is less about ringing the bell than finding the right first trade — especially for a company the size of SpaceX.

Speaking from Nasdaq on listing day, Griggs said that for a deal of this scale, the stabilization agent typically wants to find orders for about 10% of the shares sold in the offering before setting the opening price. In SpaceX’s case, he said that would mean roughly 55 million shares.

After earlier indications around $175, SpaceX’s expected opening trade moved closer to $160, underscoring the price-discovery process Griggs described.

The listing also comes with a near-term index implication. Griggs said SpaceX would be eligible to enter the Nasdaq 100 within about 15 days, reflecting its expected place among the world’s largest nonfinancial companies by market cap.

MacKenzie Sigalos

SpaceX board member says company is one of the most consequential in ‘human history’

SpaceX board member Antonio Gracias told CNBC that he thinks SpaceX is “one of the most consequential companies in human history.”

Gracias, who is also the founder and managing partner of Valor Equity Partners, said he plans to hold his stake in SpaceX “as long as I possibly can.” Most of the firm’s 7% stake is owned by its clients.

He said he wasn’t sure about whether there could be a merger between SpaceX and Musk’s automaker Teslanoting that decision is “way above my pay grade.”

—Ashley Capoot

‘Dean of Valuation’ calls SpaceX’s addressable market a ‘hallucination’

The so-called Dean of Valuation has qualms about SpaceX’s market value of approximately $1.8 trillion.

“SpaceX is an amazing company. It’s an engineering marvel,” Aswath Damodaran, a New York University finance professor, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Friday. But, “even if you build the biggest possible stories, getting to 1.8 trillion takes a lot of work.”

Assigning a valuation of $1.3 trillion already “takes the bull’s case and carries it to its limits,” he said.

“This is not a small story. It’s one of the biggest stories I’ve ever told,” Damodaran said. “I just don’t know how much give there is in the story to get past 1.3 trillion.”

Damodaran said seeing SpaceX’s addressable market of $28.5 trillion made him think the prospectus was written by Grok, the Elon Musk-owned artificial intelligence assistant, rather than a banker.

“This is a hallucination,” Damodaran said. “I would be embarrassed to even put that number out.”

— Alex Harring

SpaceX first trade now $162 per share

SpaceX executives and employees ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite to celebrate the launch of SpaceX’s initial public offering in New York on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

SpaceX’s indications of interest to trading desks are now showing the first trade would be around $162 a share, down from the $175 level first shown initially.

The indications signal SpaceX would still open with a 20% gain from its $135 IPO price.

—John Melloy

Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire likens SpaceX to Nvidia three years ago

Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia Capital, compared SpaceX today to another major AI beneficiary: Nvidia.

“I personally think SpaceX right now is more like Nvidia three years ago than Tesla, which I think a lot of investors comp it to,” Maguire said. “And what I mean by that is I personally have very high confidence in explosive revenue growth.”

Maguire added that as an individual investor, he is “going to hold my shares forever.”

− CJ Haddad

Correction: Shaun Maguire is a venture capitalist and partner at Sequoia Capital. An earlier version misspelled his name.

Shotwell says SpaceX is a ‘company of patriots’

Shotwell told CNBC that SpaceX is committed to serving the government and seeing out those contracts in addition to its commercial ones.

“We’re a company of patriots, and we want to make sure that our government has access to the leading technology and the best stuff, and I think we provide the best stuff,” she said.

She added that SpaceX is “always going to support our government.”

– Laya Neelakandan

SpaceX now indicated to open around $165 a share

SpaceX’s first trade may be slightly lower than first indicated as Wall Street trading desks scramble to meet supply and demand of orders and open the biggest IPO ever. Although it is still expected to open with a big double-digit gain.

The latest so-called indications of interest were last at $165 a share, down from the $175 level first shown initially. That still means SpaceX would open with a 22% pop from its $135 IPO price.

The indications are sent in before the offering opens and are used by trading desks to set the first trade. This process is likely to take several more hours because of the sheer size of the SpaceX IPO and the sizable participation of retail traders in this offering.

—John Melloy

Shotwell on retail investor interest: Musk is ‘trying to make space open for everybody’

Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer interviews with CNBC during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

SpaceX has drawn massive enthusiasm from retail investors looking to get in on the mega-IPO, and Shotwell said that focus reflects Musk’s vision for the company.

“He’s trying to make space open for everybody,” she said. “He wanted this IPO, he wanted regular people to be able to buy the stock, and a lot of folks participated at the retail level.”

Shotwell said she hopes SpaceX sets an example for companies to allow more people to buy stock in the future.

“I’m not saying I don’t love our institutional investors,” she said. “They’ve been incredibly supportive, and they continue to be, but we’ve had so much demand over the last few years from friends and from family and from Tesla shareholders.”

— Samantha Subin

Shotwell on Iran threats: ‘We’ll keep forging ahead’

Shotwell said SpaceX isn’t deterred by Iran’s threats to target Elon Musk’s companies in the Middle East. SpaceX has faced threats “at all levels,” she said.

“I think when you’re doing things that are really different and you’re doing things that are trying to change the world, I think some people and some countries get mad, you know, but we always try to do the right thing,” Shotwell said. “We’ll keep forging ahead.”

Iranian state media reported Thursday that the country is targeting “all interests related to economic holdings managed by Elon Musk in West Asia,” including a regional Starlink ground station.

— Annie Palmer

Shotwell says Musk is ‘very misunderstood’

Shotwell told CNBC she thinks Musk is “very misunderstood.” She said investors were impressed with him during discussions ahead of the IPO.

“The investors left saying, ‘I had no idea that that is the man,’ and I said, ‘That’s the man I’ve worked for for 24 years. I love him,'” Shotwell said.

—Ashley Capoot

Shotwell says $28.5 trillion addressable market reflects need for all devices and people to ‘phone home’

Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer interviews with CNBC during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

One eye-popping figure in SpaceX’s IPO filing is the company’s claim that its total addressable market is $28.5 trillion, which is mostly tied to AI enterprise applications. That’s a place where SpaceX doesn’t currently do much.

Shotwell said the number reflects all the “digital humans” and “humanoid robots” and “cars on the planet being full self-driving.” She said they all need AI and communications and will all need to “phone home.”

“They’ll be using Starlink for that,” Shotwell said.

—Ari Levy

Shotwell talks potential business risks, says there’s nothing she’s ‘super worried’ about

A live feed shows SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on the day of SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Shotwell said she isn’t seeing any current business risks that are sounding the alarm.

“I don’t think there’s anything sitting in front of us that I’m super worried about,” she said. “I don’t see any technology or any endeavor that we’re looking at doing that I’m afraid we can’t do.”

— Samantha Subin

Shotwell on SpaceX: “I look at ourselves as an infrastructure company”

Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, said that the company is “100%” an emerging competitor in the artificial intelligence neocloud space.

“We are builders, we build our own launch vehicles, we build our launch sites, and we’re building data centers both on the ground as well as in orbit soon,” Shotwell told CNBC in an interview. “So, I look at ourselves as an infrastructure company.”

− CJ Haddad

Shotwell says SpaceX’s AI1 satellites will launch late next year

Shotwell told CNBC she expects SpaceX will launch its AI1 satellites late next year, but that the company will be putting compute on some of the Starlink broadband and the Starlink mobile satellites prior to that.

“Want to make sure we understand the operation,” Shotwell said. “We love doing kind of canary sets and canary work before we fly the real thing.”

—Ashley Capoot

Shotwell says SpaceX investors should watch Starship, Starlink growth

Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer interviews with CNBC during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Asked what are the key metrics for SpaceX investors, Shotwell said they should keep an eye on the company’s progress developing Starship, its massive, fully reusable rocket.

She also called out growth of consumer and enterprise Starlink customers, Starlink Mobile, and Grok, the chatbot run by its AI unit xAI.

“There’s actually a lot going on,” Shotwell said.

— Annie Palmer

Shotwell says SpaceX is looking for long-term investors, ‘not everything has to get done on the first day’

In response to the question of whether SpaceX should’ve upsized the offering, Shotwell told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan that “not everything has to get done on the first day.”

“We’re really looking for investors that want to stick with us for the long term, and I feel really proud about what we’ve done,” she said

— Samantha Subin

SpaceX IPO could rekindle retail buying and inspire more rebalancing, VandaTrack says

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer, is joined by SpaceX executives and employees as they ring the Opening Bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite to celebrate the launch of SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) in New York on June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

VandaTrack says that while aggregate retail activity is still on track for its softest week of net buying since March 2020, SpaceX’s IPO could change things.

“One explanation for the weak retail activity in recent sessions is that investors have been raising liquidity ahead of the SpaceX IPO. Activity on venues like Hyperliquid — which allows speculative investors to trade SpaceX-tied derivatives — has exploded in recent days,” the market data provider wrote in a note. “This is consistent with speculative retail interest in SpaceX building ahead of the IPO.”

VandaTrack added that the liquidation of AI winners in recent sessions could be a retail funding source for SpaceX, noting that all signs point to retail investors rebalancing into the stock rather than deploying fresh capital. Space-linked proxy trades also could face rotation risk, as investors move out of space-linked names such as Rocket Lab and Rewire that have seen strong participation from retail buyers in recent months.

“The risk is that some of these positions were simply placeholders ahead of today’s IPO,” the firm wrote. “If investors decide SpaceX is the cleanest way to express the theme, some of these proxy trades could become a source of funding throughout today’s session.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

The family offices set to benefit — and why they bought in

A SpaceX banner is pictured on the day of SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026.

David Dee Delgado | Reuters

The investment firms of billionaires including ex-eBay President Jeff Skoll and AutoZone’s Pitt Hyde are set to reap rewards from SpaceX’s IPO. Gary Lauder, a cosmetics heir turned venture capitalist, backed SpaceX through his namesake family office.

Family offices who invest in space-related startups told CNBC that they view them as infrastructure and defense plays rather than flashy bets on space exploration.

Lauder said he was attracted to the strength of its Starlink satellite technology, not the prospect of space tourism. Much of his early investing was in telecommunications.

“I never dreamed of being an astronaut,” he said. “It’s just an important mode of communication.”

Robin Lauber’s Infinitas Capital invested in SpaceX in early 2025 through a secondary offering. He cited Musk’s track record and the success of Starlink as reasons to put money in. Lauber also said he thought the valuation then was “reasonable” compared with the more than$1.75 trillionexpected now.

— Hayley Cuccinello

SpaceX indicated to open around $175, representing a 30% pop

The first so-called indications of interest are coming through on SpaceX shares on Wall Street trading desks.

They indicate SpaceX would open around $175 a share, representing about a 30% pop from the IPO price of $135 a share.

The indications are sent in before an initial offering opens and are used by trading desks to set the first trade based on supply and demand for the stock.

CNBC’s Leslie Pickerreporting from Morgan Stanley’s desk, noted this is a long process and there are still likely several hours to go before the stock opens.

“That’s a fast ball right down the middle perfect,” said CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Squawk on the Street” of the indication. “People will say it’s done fairly and those who had the foresight to put in for stock did well.”

—John Melloy

SpaceX-Linked Hyperliquid perps ease but are still up 27% from IPO price

Signage for SpaceX is pictured on the day of SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2026.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

The rally in SpaceX-tied perpetual futures on Hyperliquid slipped, with the SPCX-USDC contract trading near around $172, down from roughly 8.5% from around $176 earlier in the day. That’s still about 27% above the IPO price of $135 per share.

Trading activity on perps increased from earlier, with $322.5 million in 24-hour volume and open interest climbed to over $293 million.

— Tanaya Machel

Crowd gathers around the Nasdaq as buzz builds

Onlookers during the SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Friday, June 12, 2026.

Adam Gray | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A growing crowd formed around the Nasdaq in New York City as the buzz builds for the SpaceX debut. Audible cheers were heard as Shotwell rang the opening bell from the Nasdaq.

A crowd watches SpaceX’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City on June 12, 2026.

Harriet Taylor | CNBC

Space stocks fall

Space stocks were under pressure, giving back gains seen in the premarket, as traders braced for the SpaceX IPO. Rocket Lab traded more than 5% lower, while Rewire shed 7%. Virgin Galactic dropped 24%.

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