SpaceX opens at $150 per share in Nasdaq debut, below initial $175 indication

SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday under the ticker SPCX, marking the largest initial public offering ever and one of the most closely watched market debuts in recent years.

The shares opened at $150 apiece, below the initial indication of $175.

SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell rang the opening bell from Nasdaq's New York headquarters, while founder Elon Musk joined remotely from Texas.

The company is raising $75 billion by selling 555.6 million shares at $135 apiece, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The offering values SpaceX at $1.77 trillion, making it the seventh-most valuable listed company in the United States, ahead of Tesla.

Ahead of the listing, Musk said on a JPMorgan livestream that SpaceX has been cash-flow positive since around 2015 and is entering what he described as a "significant growth phase". The company plans to expand its satellite network, deploy more than 100,000 communications satellites and eventually build artificial intelligence data centres in space.

Founded in 2002 as a reusable rocket company, SpaceX has evolved into a sprawling technology and aerospace group. Its most profitable business today is believed to be the Starlink satellite internet division. Earlier this year, the company also acquired Musk's artificial intelligence venture xAI, bringing together AI models, data centres and social media platform X under the broader SpaceX umbrella.

Despite its rapid growth and dominant position in the commercial space industry, the company's prospectus shows that SpaceX has accumulated a total deficit of $41.3 billion since its founding.

The Nasdaq debut is expected to be a defining moment for both the company and Musk, who is already among the world's wealthiest individuals and could move closer to becoming the world's first trillionaire based on his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla.