SpaceX Finalizes IPO Price at $135 a Share in World’s Largest Public Offering

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker, officially finalized its initial public offering price to become the world’s largest stock market debut, in a testament to the tech mogul’s influence and people’s belief in his business vision. On Thursday, SpaceX confirmed its I.P.O. price was set at $135 a share and that it would sell more than 555 million shares, according to a company statement. That means SpaceX would raise around $75 billion from its offering, putting its valuation at $1.77 trillion. With those numbers, SpaceX would shatter an I.P.O. record previously set by Saudi Aramco. Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company was valued at $1.7 trillion and raised more than $29 billion when it went public in 2019. SpaceX will begin trading publicly on Friday under the ticker symbol SPCX. A SpaceX spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SpaceX’s long journey to the stock market has been accompanied by many superlatives. Apart from being the biggest-ever I.P.O., SpaceX is also the most dominant space company from the world’s richest man. And it would become the benchmark for a wave of other offerings, which are all expected to unleash an avalanche of wealth across Silicon Valley and Wall Street, creating influential new titans in the process. Anthropic, the artificial intelligence start-up that makes the Claude chatbot, and its ChatGPT-making rival, OpenAI, have both confidentially filed to go public in recent days. Each company has a valuation approaching $1 trillion. If Anthropic and OpenAI successfully pull off public offerings, it would mean another milestone: Three-trillion-dollar companies reaching the stock market for the first time. A defining trait of the offerings is that they are likely to make those who are already wealthy even wealthier. At $135 a share, the SpaceX stake controlled by Mr. Musk would be worth more than $860 billion. (He cannot sell some of the SpaceX shares he controls until the company hits various operational milestones, according to the firm’s filings.) Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.