SpaceX priced its initial public offering at $135 per share, setting a valuation of $1.77 trillion ahead of its Friday debut on the Nasdaq. That figure would place the company above Tesla in the rankings of U.S. firms by market capitalization, making it the seventh-largest in the country on its first day of trading.
The offering has drawn intense interest from small investors, according to CNBC, with retail brokerages lowering barriers to entry well below their normal thresholds. Fidelity, which typically requires account balances between $100,000 and $500,000 for IPO access, set its minimum at $2,000 for this offering.
The retail allocation for the SpaceX IPO is in the low 20% range. That is lower than the 30% previously expected, but still far above the 5% to 10% that most IPOs direct toward individual investors, per Fidelity.
Marvin Jung, a 51-year-old regional director of operations in veterinary care, requested 1,000 shares through Robinhood despite his own reservations about the price. "It's outrageous. It's stupid. It's unreasonable, to be frankly honest with you," he said of the valuation. Even so, Jung said he plans to sell shortly after trading begins, expecting a strong first-day pop. "With SpaceX and what Elon is doing, this is like a beautiful symphony of all the right trigger meme words," he said. "I think this has got pretty good potential to pop strong the first day. I'm going to guess at least 30% minimum."
Jung is a self-directed investor who was active during the meme-stock boom and tracks markets through Reddit forums. His strategy is not to hold SpaceX long term. He wants to sell quickly and redirect capital toward what he sees as the next round of major offerings. "Time to go. Thank you, Elon. I spent a lot on my wife's Tesla. I need some of that back," he said with a laugh.
Retail investors who do get an allocation will need to be careful about how fast they exit. Fidelity has an anti-flipping policy that penalizes traders who sell within the first 15 calendar days of a stock's debut, reducing their ability to participate in future public offerings.
SpaceX has grown well beyond its original rocket business since Elon Musk founded it in 2002. The company now includes satellite internet service Starlink and xAI. With the IPO, Musk's net worth could move past $1 trillion.
One major question for investors who do not buy directly into the IPO is whether their index funds will pick up the stock automatically. The answer, for S&P 500 investors, is no, at least not soon. The index committee that oversees S&P 500 inclusion declined to fast-track SpaceX, leaving in place its standard 12-month waiting period. That means investors in funds like Vanguard's VOO, BlackRock's IVV, or State Street's SPY will not get SpaceX exposure until mid-2027 at the earliest.
The Nasdaq and Russell indexes made different decisions, updating their rules to allow faster inclusion. Todd Sohn, chief ETF strategist at Strategas Securities, described the practical consequence plainly on this week's ETF Edge program. "If you want SpaceX, you're not buying the S&P 500. You're going to buy the NASDAQ 100 or the Russell 1000," he said.
Peter Haynes, TD Securities' head of index and market structure research, said the S&P's decision was a mistake. "Personally, I didn't agree with the decision," he said. Haynes pointed to the 2019 Saudi Aramco IPO, which was then the largest in history. At that time, both FTSE and MSCI built fast-track models that added the stock to global benchmarks within 5 to 10 days. "They have a 'Made in the USA' stock that is sizable and belongs in benchmarks," he said.
The split between index providers carries consequences that could extend beyond SpaceX. Sohn warned that the S&P's decision sets a template for what comes next. "What this is doing is setting a precedent that [the] S&P will not add OpenAI and Anthropic when those IPOs happen," he said. He added that the dueling decisions could create an "index war," producing performance differences between the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and other major benchmarks.
Haynes also noted the wait for S&P 500 investors could stretch well past a year, because the index committee maintained its profitability requirement as a condition of inclusion, adding another potential hurdle for SpaceX beyond the standard waiting period.
Jung said he intends to use any gains from SpaceX to position himself for Anthropic and OpenAI, which he sees as the next blockbuster offerings in line.
