SpaceX shares gain 17% as trading begins, valuing Elon Musk's rocket company at more than $2 trillion

On Friday, SpaceX shares experienced a remarkable rise as trading began on the Nasdaq, propelling the company's valuation beyond a staggering $2 trillion. During midday trading, the stock jumped 17%, showcasing strong investor interest. Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, commented on the successful launch, stating, "This was a successful launch no doubt about it. The public demand is there, which is promising, but we will have to see if it can maintain this opening price or if it was merely a euphoric retail crowd driving it." SpaceX shares opened at $150 each, reflecting an approximate 11% increase from its initial public offering (IPO) price of $135. However, this figure fell short of the anticipated $175 based on early interest from trading desks. Woods noted, "You have to give it a full trading day, which will be next week. The initial thoughts on the trading desks were that it could get up to $200." This debut marks a historic moment, establishing Elon Musk as the first trillionaire on record and creating a potential wave of new millionaires. However, shares of Tesla, another Musk-led venture, saw a decline of over 2% during intraday trading. Additionally, the initial public offering of SpaceX led to a downturn in other space industry stocks, with companies like Redwire and RocketLab seeing significant drops of over 13% and 12%, respectively. The successful launch of SpaceX is anticipated to trigger a series of high-profile IPOs, as both Anthropic and OpenAI have recently filed confidential prospectuses with regulators. Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.