New York

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell rang the opening bell at Nasdaq on Thursday ahead of the aerospace company's highly anticipated stock market debut. While Shotwell attended the ceremony in person at Nasdaq's headquarters in New York, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk joined the event virtually from Texas alongside senior company executives.

Trading in SpaceX shares is scheduled to commence under the ticker symbol SPCX, marking a significant milestone for the company and allowing public investors to buy and sell its stock for the first time.

The company raised approximately USD 75 billion through its public offering by selling about 556 million shares at USD 135 per share, valuing SpaceX at roughly USD 1.77 trillion. The listing has further strengthened Musk's position among the world's wealthiest individuals, with much of his wealth tied to his stake in the company.

The blockbuster offering generated strong demand from investors, propelling SpaceX into the exclusive group of companies valued at more than USD 1 trillion.

Founded in 2002, SpaceX has expanded far beyond its original focus on rockets and space exploration. The company now operates across multiple sectors, including satellite internet services, artificial intelligence, and advanced technology infrastructure. Its long-term ambitions include supporting human settlement beyond Earth and developing large-scale computing capabilities in space.

In its prospectus, SpaceX described itself as a company building integrated hardware and software systems across space technology, connectivity, and artificial intelligence.

The company's AI division, xAI, launched in 2023 and later became part of SpaceX in early 2026. Since then, it has significantly expanded its computing infrastructure, including the development of large-scale computing clusters known as COLOSSUS and COLOSSUS II.

SpaceX is also pursuing the Terafab initiative, a semiconductor manufacturing project reportedly being developed in collaboration with Tesla and Intel. The effort is aimed at expanding the company's capabilities in chip design and production.

Following its listing, SpaceX is expected to gain entry into the Nasdaq-100 index after recent rule changes designed to facilitate quicker inclusion of large-cap companies. Such a move would result in the stock being automatically incorporated into numerous passive investment funds and index-tracking portfolios.

The public offering has also created substantial wealth for thousands of current and former employees who hold company shares.

Retail investors received a larger allocation of shares than is typical for major IPOs, with many members of Musk's extensive supporter base participating in the offering.

Departing from conventional IPO practices, Musk opted to set a fixed offering price of USD 135 per share rather than establish a pricing range during the book-building process. Despite the unconventional approach, investor interest remained exceptionally strong.

Reports indicate that the offering attracted demand well above the number of shares available, with participation from institutional investors, wealth managers and high-net-worth individuals. According to media reports, asset management giant BlackRock submitted an order worth approximately USD 5 billion.

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The market debut comes at a time when investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-related companies remains strong. Analysts view the listing as an important test of market appetite for future technology IPOs, with several major AI firms expected to explore public listings later this year.