Today's Edition
LOS ANGELES (NYT)
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and artificial intelligence company, capped the biggest-ever initial public offering by rising 20% in its trading debut Friday, turning the world’s richest man into the first trillionaire and setting the stage for fast-growing AI companies to reach the stock market in a once-in-a-lifetime bonanza.
SpaceX shares opened trading at $150, up from their IPO price of $135, before closing the day at $161.11.
That valued the company at more than $2 trillion, exceeding the market capitalisations of other titans of American industry, including Walmart and General Motors combined.
SpaceX raised $75 billion from its offering, more than the combined amount amassed by every other US IPO over the past two years, according to Renaissance Capital, a research and advisory firm.
The pop in SpaceX’s share price also catapulted Musk, 54, to trillionaire status.
The entrepreneur, who not only leads SpaceX but also runs electric carmaker Tesla and other businesses, has long been the planet’s wealthiest person.
But passing the trillionaire milestone is significant, further augmenting Musk’s fortune and influence.
A coterie of Musk’s friends and venture capital and private investment firms were enriched by the IPO, many by billions of dollars.
Thousands of SpaceX employees instantly became millionaires.
Musk spent Friday at the company’s headquarters in Starbase, Texas, where he celebrated with employees, family, friends, and investors.
"It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public,” he told them, referring to SpaceX’s founding in 2002 in Southern California.
"I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
