From “probably gonna fail” to Wall Street rocket fuel
Elon Musk basically opened SpaceX’s first trading day with the corporate version of “I was not expecting to be standing here.” He said he gave the company less than a 10% chance of making it, which, in hindsight, is a pretty dramatic way to describe what turned into one of the most valuable companies on the planet.
The startup that kept eating concrete
Back in the early days, SpaceX’s first three Falcon 1 launches blew up or failed. That would’ve been the end of the movie for most companies. Instead, Musk kept funding the thing, the team kept grinding, and in September 2008 Falcon 1 finally hit orbit. That win didn’t just save the company — it helped land a $1.6 billion NASA contract and turned SpaceX from “expensive hobby” into “oh, this might actually matter.”
Why investors care now
Fast-forward to Friday: SpaceX sold 555.6 million shares at $135 each and raised $75 billion, making its debut a monster by any standard. Shares opened at $150 and climbed as high as $176.52 in early trading, which is the market’s way of saying, “Yeah, we see the vision.”
A few things matter here:
- SpaceX is now valued at roughly $2 trillion, which is absurd until you remember it dominates commercial launches.
- Starlink adds a whole second growth engine, because apparently one space empire wasn’t enough.
- The company’s history of reusable rockets and NASA validation gives the IPO more swagger than a normal first-day pop.
Big picture
This is one of those rare IPO stories where the origin tale is almost as important as the ticker. Investors aren’t just buying a business — they’re buying the “the odds were terrible and we did it anyway” version of Silicon Valley mythology. And on day one, the market clearly wants a seat on the rocket.