SpaceX to list on US stock market today after raising $75bn in largest IPO ever – business live

SpaceX to list on US stock market today after raising $75bn in largest IPO ever – business live

Shares in the rockets-to-satellites-to-AI company will begin trading in Wall Street today, after SpaceX raised $75bn through its IPO.

The listing will put SpaceX among the largest public companies, and could see Musk declared the world’s first trillionaire later today.

Last night, SpaceX announced it had has raised $75bn in a record-breaking initial public offering, which values the company at $1.77tn. It successfully sold 555,555,555 shares of its Class A common stock, at $135.00 per share.

Banks underwriting the deal have also been given an “over-allotment option” to buy an extra 83.3m shares, which would pump up the size of the IPO to about $86bn.

SpaceX attracted orders for more than three times the amount on offer, the Financial Times reports – with strong demand from institutions and also retail investors. That could help propel SpaceX’s shares up today, as those who missed out in the IPO (or didn’t get as many shares as they wanted) try to get on board.

This strong demand came despite concerns that the company was overvalued – being sold at 92 times last year’s revenues (a hefty valuation).

Investment research group Morningstar claimed earlier this week that SpaceX was worth only $63 a share – less than half the IPO price of $135 – and warned there is “a major disconnect between market expectations and underlying fundamentals”.

Michael Field, the chief equity strategist at Morningstar, suggests investors should sit out the IPO and wait for “a more attractive entry point down the line”.

All eyes will be on the US markets today to see how SpaceX’s shares perform….

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SpaceX’s shares will be supported by a number of “forced buyers”, such as tracker funds.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, explains:

double quotation markThe Nasdaq index has tweaked its rules, which has allowed SpaceX to join the index on a fast-track basis. It remains to be seen whether the company will have a disproportionate effect on the index in terms of weighting, but in any event its inclusion guarantees some additional and significant buying pressure.

SpaceX appears to have chosen a good day to join the US stock market.

Equity markets around the world are rallying today, after Donald Trump claimed that the US and Iran are on the verge of signing a peace agreement and announced that he will cancel fresh missile strikes.

Stocks rallied in Asia-Pacific markets overnight, lifting Japan’s Nikkei 225 by 2.8%.

In London this morning, the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares is up 1.5%, or 151 points, at 10,455 points.

Wall Street is on track to open a little higher, after rallying strongly after Trump’s comments.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, says:

double quotation mark“Risk-taking is back in fashion at the end of another volatile week, helped by renewed confidence that the conflict with Iran may soon end.

President Trump’s promises are again moving markets, with investors buoyed by his assertion that a deal could be reached as soon as this weekend. The hotly anticipated SpaceX IPO is feeding the frenzy, with high hopes that aerospace and AI will cross bountiful new frontiers in the future.

Marex Financial, who have handled the UK retail element of SpaceX’s IPO, have reported that just over 60% of UK investors who applied for shares have received their full allocation.

Those who wanted more than about £2,000 of shares, though, won’t get as much as they hoped.

double quotation markInvestors in the Retail Offer who applied for up to $2,700 (£2,013) have been allocated in full, rounded down to the nearest whole Share. Those who applied for more than this amount have been scaled back, with a maximum of 1000 Shares being allocated to any such investor.

This means 61 per cent. of investors in the Retail Offer have received a full allocation.

A poll by Opinium has found that one in four Gen Z and Millennial investors in the UK say they have applied for shares in SpaceX or will buy shares on the day of the IPO.

One in seven (15%) of all UK investors say they have applied for shares or will buy them on the day of the IPO, which is on track to become the largest in market history. Male investors (18%) are also more likely than female investors (10%) to say that have or will buy SpaceX shares.

Analysts at Unicredit say that the stock-market debut of SpaceX is more than an IPO story, adding:

double quotation markIt is a reminder that space is increasingly becoming Earth’s critical economic infrastructure – and that the US is setting the pace in the commercial and geopolitical space race.

SpaceX’s shares are surging in ‘shadow’ financial markets, indicating that its value could surge by 35% when trading begins later today.

Derivatives offered by online brokerage IG are indicating SpaceX’s market value could surge to around $2.4tn, up from the $1.77tn valuation set by last night’s IPO pricing.

That implies that SpaceX’s shares might jump to around $180 when trading begins, cement Musk’s trillionaire status.

Bloomberg have spotted a second market which also implies SpaceX’s shares might pop:

double quotation markSpaceX-tied perpetual futures, contracts that don’t expire, on crypto venue Hyperliquid were trading around $180, implying a valuation of more than $2.3 trillion.

Forbes has calculated that Elon Musk is on the verge of becoming a trillionaire thanks to the pricing of SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO.

That’s if you add Musk’s stake in SpaceX to his holding in Tesla, which they calculate means Musk is now worth $982bn.

double quotation markMusk, who serves as chairman, CEO and chief technical officer of SpaceX, owns 4.8 billion shares of the rocketmaker, worth $644 billion. He has another 350 million stock options with an exercise price of $8.40 per share, worth $44 billion, giving him a 38% stake in the company, worth $688 billion at the IPO price

double quotation markMusk also owns just over 10% of $1.5 trillion (market cap) Tesla, worth $165 billion, plus options to acquire another nearly 8% stake, worth $114 billion.

So SpaceX’s shares only have to rise slightly when they start trading on the US stock market, to around $138.50, to give Musk the title of the world’s first trillionaire.

The SpaceX IPO also led to an unusual protest yesterday in New York.

A 40-foot high giant inflatable of Elon Musk, smiling and shirtless, appeared at Times Square. It was created by the Safe AI Now (SAIN) coalition, to warn of the dangers of SpaceX’s AI assistant Grok.