Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, became a publicly traded company on Friday, nearly a quarter century after it was founded. The company began trading on the Nasdaq exchange in New York City at $135 a share, valuing SpaceX at nearly $1.8 trillion. By the end of the trading day, shares were selling at $160.95, a gain of more than 19 percent.
According to a report by Ars Technica, on paper SpaceX founder Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire, with his personal stake in the company valued at more than $700 billion. Because of the company's stock options plan, thousands of current and former employees became overnight millionaires.
SpaceX now stands as one of a handful of the most valuable companies in the world. There is broad disagreement about whether SpaceX is fool's gold with its sky-high valuation, or represents a valuable opportunity to finally own a piece of a dominant space company that could some day command the business of data centers in orbit.
Most shareholders who bought in on the first day did not do so to be part of the company's long-term plans to settle Mars or to help NASA land humans on the Moon. Most people invest in stocks to make money.
What the company actually told investors about its own value may surprise those who think of SpaceX as primarily a rocket builder. As SpaceX made clear in its S-1 document filed in May, the company's value does not lie in its space-enabled solutions or its Starlink internet constellation. The company views those as comprising less than 7 percent of its total addressable market.
Instead, Musk and SpaceX see the majority of its value in providing AI services, mostly from space, and primarily for enterprise applications. If investors agree that is where the vast majority of the company's profit lies, it is where they will want to see SpaceX put its time and resources.
Musk retains complete autonomy in terms of ownership and voting rights. He will now be beholden to shareholders in one important way, though: the price of his company's stock.
SpaceX now stands as one of the most valuable companies in the world. Whether that valuation holds will depend heavily on whether the company can deliver on its AI ambitions, not just its rockets.
