**SpaceX IPO makes history as largest ever. Stock gains 19% on first day**

SpaceX made history on Friday with an initial public offering that shattered records, propelling CEO Elon Musk to become the world's first trillionaire. The aerospace and satellite communications giant, now valued above $2 trillion, saw its newly listed stock leap 19% on its first day of trading, closing at $160.95.

The company successfully raised an astounding $75 billion by selling over 555 million shares at an offer price of $135, making it the largest IPO in history. Trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, SpaceX instantly cemented its position as one of the world's most valuable publicly traded companies. Adding a symbolic flourish to the historic day, SpaceX launched its 650th Falcon 9 rocket from Florida about an hour before market opening, delivering Starlink broadband satellites into orbit.

From Starbase, Texas, Elon Musk commented on the monumental achievement, reflecting on the company's improbable journey. "I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all, to be clear," he admitted about its early days. Musk reiterated his ambitious vision, stating, "SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to mars, and ultimately beyond." While Musk was in Texas, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen rang the Nasdaq opening bell in New York.

The unprecedented capital injection is earmarked for ambitious expansion across multiple fronts. SpaceX plans to significantly broaden its flagship rocket and satellite communications businesses. Crucially, the company is also doubling down on a strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence, a move solidified by its earlier acquisition of Musk's AI startup, xAI. Future plans include expanding Earth-based data centers, developing proprietary AI microchips, and launching "orbital AI compute infrastructure"—essentially, data centers in space.

Despite its market debut success, SpaceX is not profitable, reporting a net loss of $4.3 billion in the first quarter of this year. Critics have raised questions about its stratospheric valuation, especially given Musk's iron grip on the company as chairman, CEO, and holder of roughly 85% of shareholder voting power. Morningstar analysts Nicolas Owens and Suryansh Sharma, using a discounted cash flow model, valued SpaceX at a significantly lower $780 billion.

Morningstar highlighted "very high" uncertainty surrounding SpaceX's business, complicated by its governance profile under Musk, who also leads Tesla and other ventures. Analysts cautioned about "substantial risks related to strategic execution, technological evolution, market dynamics, regulations, AI buildout, and key-person dependency."

SpaceX’s IPO is the first of three significant tests for investor appetite in AI-related technology companies this year. OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, behind the Claude AI models, have both signaled intentions to go public, potentially this fall. While these companies are massive and AI is rapidly transforming industries, their future profitability remains a major question mark, as they have historically burned cash to develop AI and subsidize usership. Songyee Yoon, managing partner at Principal Venture Partners, noted that the introduction of such novel technology often "comes with a lot of kind of frothy valuation and hype."