Elon Musk Is Now the World's First Trillionaire — SpaceX Went Public Today and the Stock Is Up 30%
SPCX opened on the Nasdaq this morning at $150 a share — 11% above its $135 IPO price — and has surged past $175 intraday, pushing Musk's net worth above $1.1 trillion. Here is everything you need to know about the biggest IPO in history.
June 12, 2026 · By Justin Plosz · Finance · 9 min read
The Opening Bell: History Made Before 10 A.M.
At 9:31 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, SpaceX stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SPCX. Within the first sixty seconds, shares changed hands at $150 — 11 percent above the $135 IPO price set the evening before.
By 10 a.m., the stock had climbed to $168.75, a 25 percent premium over the offering price. As of midday, SPCX was trading near $175, representing a gain of approximately 30 percent and a market capitalization approaching $2.3 trillion.
At that valuation, Elon Musk's approximate 42 percent stake in SpaceX — combined with his holdings in Tesla, xAI, X (formerly Twitter), The Boring Company, and Neuralink — pushed his total net worth past the $1.1 trillion mark, according to estimates from Forbes and Bloomberg. No individual has ever crossed that threshold before.
Musk is now, unambiguously, the world's first trillionaire.
SpaceX employees gathered at watch parties at the company's Boca Chica, Texas, headquarters and its Hawthorne, California, campus. Bell-ringing parties were also held in New York. Musk himself posted a single rocket emoji on X shortly after the open.
The Numbers: What the Biggest IPO in History Actually Looks Like
SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 per share on Wednesday evening, June 11, 2026 — near the top of its indicated range of $120 to $138. The company sold 555,555,555 Class A shares, raising approximately $75 billion in gross proceeds. That eclipses Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion IPO in 2019, which had held the record for the largest public offering in history.
The offering was multiple times oversubscribed. Institutional demand was described by lead underwriters as "overwhelming" during the roadshow, which ran from June 4 to June 11. Retail investors received a lower-than-expected allocation — cut to the low 20 percent range — as institutions absorbed the majority of the offering.
At the IPO price of $135, SpaceX's implied market capitalization was approximately $1.77 trillion. At the intraday high of $168.75, that figure climbed to roughly $2.21 trillion — placing the company above Apple's market cap on the day of the debut and behind only Microsoft among listed global companies.
Key IPO facts at a glance:
• Ticker: SPCX (Nasdaq Global Select Market)
• IPO Price: $135.00 per share
• Opening Trade: $150.00 (+11.1%)
• Session High: $168.75 (+25.0%)
• Intraday Range (midday): ~$165–$175
• Shares Offered: 555,555,555 Class A shares
• Gross Proceeds: ~$75 billion
• IPO Valuation: ~$1.77 trillion
• Peak Intraday Market Cap: ~$2.21 trillion
How Elon Musk Became the First Trillionaire
Before today's IPO, Musk's net worth sat at approximately $982 billion according to Forbes' pre-IPO estimates — within striking distance of the trillion-dollar mark, but not there yet. The primary assets holding him back were SpaceX itself, which was valued at $350 billion in its most recent secondary market transactions, and the locked-up nature of those shares.
With SpaceX now publicly traded and its market cap roughly five times larger than that last private valuation, the math changed dramatically. Musk's approximate 42 percent ownership stake in SpaceX is now worth somewhere in the range of $800 billion to $950 billion on its own — depending on which intraday price you use and how much of that stake is subject to lockup restrictions.
Add his approximately 13 percent stake in Tesla (currently valued at roughly $85 billion), his majority ownership of xAI (valued privately at around $50 billion at its last round), and minority stakes in X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, and the total picture clears $1.1 trillion.
To put that in perspective: $1.1 trillion is more than the GDP of the Netherlands. It is more than the combined market capitalization of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. It is roughly 3 percent of the entire U.S. stock market.
The previous record was held by Musk himself, who briefly crossed $300 billion in 2021. Before today, no person in recorded history — including John D. Rockefeller at the peak of Standard Oil's power — had ever accumulated wealth equivalent to $1 trillion in modern dollars.
What SpaceX Actually Does — And Why It's Worth $2 Trillion
For many Canadians who have watched rocket launches on the news for years, it may not be immediately obvious why a rocket company commands a valuation that rivals the most valuable enterprises in human history. The answer is almost entirely one word: Starlink.
Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet network, which now operates approximately 7,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites and serves more than 4.5 million subscribers in over 100 countries. It is the fastest-growing internet service provider in history by subscriber count, and it is the backbone of SpaceX's profitability.
Starlink is particularly significant in Canada, where rural and remote communities — including many Indigenous communities in the North — have adopted Starlink as their primary internet service at rates that are among the highest per capita of any country in the world. The Canadian Armed Forces also operate under a Starlink service agreement.
SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in total revenue for fiscal year 2025 — up 33 percent from 2024. Starlink accounts for roughly 55 to 60 percent of that revenue and is the only segment generating a meaningful operating margin. The launch services business — Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and the nascent Starship program — accounts for the remainder, and is essentially run at near cost as an internal capability to reduce Starlink deployment expenses.
On the cost side, SpaceX reported a net loss of approximately $4.9 billion in 2025, driven primarily by the ongoing capital expenditure requirements of the Starship program and its xAI compute division. EBITDA for 2025 was approximately $6.58 billion on a consolidated basis.
Starship: The Reason the Valuation Is Built on the Future
The gap between SpaceX's current earnings and its $2 trillion valuation is not irrational — it is a bet on Starship.
Starship is the fully reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle SpaceX has been developing since approximately 2012. It is designed to carry 100 to 150 tonnes to low Earth orbit per flight at a cost SpaceX claims will eventually approach $10 million per launch. For comparison, a Falcon 9 launch costs approximately $67 million and carries roughly 22 tonnes.
If those economics prove out, Starship would make Falcon 9 look like a Model T. It would enable Starlink satellite deployment at a fraction of current costs, enable a point-to-point Earth transportation market that doesn't exist yet, and — most importantly to Musk personally — enable a crewed Mars mission.
Starship Flight 12, launched on May 22, 2026, was described by SpaceX as its most successful test to date, with both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage completing their return and catch sequences. Flight 13 is expected within sixty days.
Investors who purchased SPCX today are not primarily buying a rocket company. They are buying the possibility that Starship makes every other launch vehicle on Earth economically obsolete within a decade — and that Musk uses that advantage to extend Starlink's dominance, launch a Mars colonization effort, and possibly enter markets that do not yet exist.
What This Means for Canadian Investors
SPCX trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, which is accessible to Canadian investors through virtually any Canadian brokerage — including Questrade, Wealthsimple Trade, TD Direct Investing, RBC Direct Investing, and others — in the same way any U.S.-listed stock is purchased.
Canadian investors should be aware of a few considerations:
Currency: SPCX is priced in U.S. dollars. Purchasing through a Canadian brokerage will typically involve a currency conversion, either at the broker's rate or, if you hold USD in your account, directly.
Registered Accounts: SPCX can generally be held in a TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA, as it is listed on a designated stock exchange. However, confirm with your specific broker, as registered account eligibility for new IPO shares can sometimes lag by a few trading days.
Lockup Periods: While retail shares purchased on the open market are freely tradeable, approximately 80 percent of outstanding SpaceX shares are subject to a 180-day lockup held by insiders including Musk, early employees, and institutional investors from private rounds. When that lockup expires in approximately December 2026, significant additional supply could enter the market.
Volatility: Shares have already moved 30 percent in a single morning. This is a high-volatility, high-conviction stock. Musk himself has said publicly that he expects the stock to be volatile and has advised investors to "only buy what you can afford to lose."
The Race to $1 Trillion: How Musk Got Here
A brief timeline of the most dramatic wealth accumulation in recorded history:
2002 — Musk founds SpaceX with $100 million from the sale of PayPal. He holds approximately 70 percent.
2008 — SpaceX and Tesla both nearly collapse. Musk's net worth is effectively zero.
2012 — SpaceX becomes the first private company to dock a spacecraft with the International Space Station. The company's value begins its asymptotic rise.
2020 — Tesla joins the S&P 500. Musk's net worth crosses $100 billion for the first time, briefly making him the richest person in the world.
2021 — Tesla stock peaks. Musk's net worth touches $300 billion. He briefly becomes the world's first person to reach that level.
2023 — SpaceX's most recent private valuation reaches $150 billion. Starlink hits 2 million subscribers.
2024 — Musk's political profile rises significantly. xAI raises $6 billion. Starlink reaches 3.5 million subscribers.
2025 — SpaceX reports $18.7 billion in revenue. The company begins formal IPO preparation with a confidential S-1 filing.
May 20, 2026 — SpaceX publicly files its S-1 prospectus with the SEC, revealing its financials for the first time.
June 4–11, 2026 — Roadshow. The offering is multiple times oversubscribed within 48 hours.
June 11, 2026 — Shares priced at $135.
June 12, 2026 — SPCX opens at $150. Musk crosses $1 trillion. History is made.
Key takeaways
- SpaceX (ticker: SPCX) began trading on the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026 at $135 per share — the largest IPO in history, raising approximately $75 billion
- SPCX surged more than 30% in the first hour of trading, hitting a session high of $168.75 and trading near $175 intraday, giving SpaceX a market cap approaching $2.3 trillion
- The IPO pushed Elon Musk's net worth above $1.1 trillion, making him the world's first trillionaire in recorded history — a milestone no individual has ever reached
- SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025 (+33% YoY), with Starlink — its satellite internet service with 4.5 million+ subscribers — as the dominant revenue driver
- The offering was multiple times oversubscribed; retail investors received allocations in the low 20% range as institutional demand dominated
- Canadian investors can purchase SPCX through any Canadian brokerage with Nasdaq access (Questrade, Wealthsimple, TD, RBC, etc.); the stock can generally be held in TFSAs and RRSPs
- Approximately 80% of outstanding shares are subject to a 180-day lockup expiring around December 2026 — a key risk factor for investors considering the stock at current levels
Frequently asked questions
- What is SPCX and when did SpaceX go public?
- SPCX is the Nasdaq ticker symbol for SpaceX — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The company completed its initial public offering on June 12, 2026, pricing shares at $135 each and raising approximately $75 billion. It is the largest IPO in recorded history, surpassing Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion offering in 2019.
- Is Elon Musk actually a trillionaire now?
- Yes. As of June 12, 2026, Elon Musk's net worth has crossed $1.1 trillion according to estimates from Forbes and Bloomberg, driven primarily by the value of his approximately 42 percent stake in SpaceX following its IPO. He is the first person in recorded history to reach this milestone.
- Why is SpaceX worth $2 trillion if it lost money last year?
- SpaceX's valuation reflects its growth trajectory and the potential of its Starship rocket program, not current profitability. Starlink — its satellite internet service — generated roughly $10+ billion in revenue in 2025 and is growing rapidly. Investors are pricing in the possibility that Starship eventually makes Falcon 9 economically obsolete and allows SpaceX to dominate global launch markets and expand Starlink at dramatically lower costs.
- Can Canadians buy SpaceX stock (SPCX)?
- Yes. SPCX trades on the Nasdaq and is accessible through any Canadian brokerage with U.S. market access — including Questrade, Wealthsimple Trade, TD Direct Investing, RBC Direct Investing, and others. Shares are purchased in U.S. dollars. SPCX can generally be held in registered accounts (TFSA, RRSP, FHSA), though investors should confirm with their specific broker.
- What is the lockup period for SpaceX stock?
- Approximately 80 percent of outstanding SpaceX shares are subject to a 180-day lockup agreement, restricting insiders — including Elon Musk and early institutional investors — from selling. That lockup is expected to expire around December 2026, at which point significant additional share supply could enter the market and affect the stock price.
- What does Starlink have to do with SpaceX's IPO valuation?
- Starlink is the primary driver of SpaceX's revenue and the main reason for its high valuation. The satellite internet network now serves more than 4.5 million subscribers in over 100 countries and generated roughly 55 to 60 percent of SpaceX's $18.7 billion in 2025 revenue. In Canada specifically, Starlink has become the dominant internet provider for rural and remote communities and operates under a service agreement with the Canadian Armed Forces.
- What is Starship and why does it matter to SpaceX investors?
- Starship is SpaceX's next-generation fully reusable heavy-lift rocket. If it reaches commercial operation at SpaceX's projected cost targets, it would dramatically reduce launch costs compared to Falcon 9, allowing SpaceX to deploy Starlink satellites cheaper and potentially dominate global commercial launch markets. Starship Flight 12 on May 22, 2026 was SpaceX's most successful test to date. Investors in SPCX are largely betting on Starship's potential.
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