- SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq today under ticker SPCX, priced at $135 per share at a $1.77 trillion valuation: the largest IPO in stock market history, raising $75 billion.
- One in four Gen Z and Millennial UK investors plan to buy on IPO day or have already applied for shares, according to new Opinium research, driven by FOMO as much as fundamentals.
- Demand exceeded $250 billion before trading opened, more than three times the $75 billion on offer, with retail orders alone surpassing $100 billion.
This morning, for the first time in the 24-year history of one of the world’s most recognised companies, anyone with a brokerage account can own a piece of SpaceX.
The $SPCX ticker went live on the Nasdaq Global Select Market at 9:50 am ET on 12 June 2026 — the opening window the Nasdaq reserved for its most anticipated debut in years.
The numbers behind the listing are almost comically large. SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share, offering 555,555,555 Class A shares to raise $75 billion, the largest amount ever raised in an IPO.
At that price, the company’s total valuation stands at $1.77 trillion, making it roughly the seventh-most-valuable company in the US at debut, above Tesla’s current market cap of approximately $1.6 trillion.
Total investor demand before trading opened exceeded $250 billion. That’s more than 3.5 times the shares available. Retail orders alone surpassed $100 billion.
What UK investors are planning to do
New research from Opinium, surveying 785 UK investors between 5 and 9 June 2026, captures the mood heading into today’s debut. One in four Gen Z and Millennial investors said they had already applied for shares or planned to buy on IPO day. Across all UK investors, the figure is 15%. A further 25% of all investors, rising to 47% of Gen Z specifically, said they were considering buying later.
Investor awareness of the listing is striking: 72% of UK investors had heard of the SpaceX IPO before today. Male investors (76%) are more likely to be aware than female investors (64%).
“Investor awareness of the SpaceX IPO is high in the UK, with 72% of investors saying they have heard of it. The research points to strong early interest among younger investors — 25% of Gen Z and Millennials say they have applied or plan to buy on the day,” says James Nicandrou, associate director, Opinium
“Motivations also differ by age, with younger investors more likely to cite FOMO, while older investors are more focused on expected share price growth and trust in Elon Musk’s track record,” he adds.
Why Gen Z is rushing in, and why older investors are more cautious
The Opinium data reveals a generational split that says as much about how people think about investing as it does about SpaceX.
Among investors aged 18 to 34 planning to buy, fear of missing out on a high-profile IPO (21%) ties with a belief that the share price will increase over time (21%) as the leading motivations. Only 13% of investors aged 35 and over cite FOMO, while 27% point to expected share price growth and 25% cite trust in Elon Musk’s track record.
Even among self-described knowledgeable investors, the picture is divided. Only 21% plan to invest immediately. 31 % are adopting a wait-and-see approach, and 32% of knowledgeable investors expect the share price to be lower than its IPO level by the end of today’s first trading session.
What you’re actually buying
When you buy SPCX today, you are buying shares in a company that includes Starlink, the Falcon 9 launch business, the Starship programme, and, since February 2026, xAI and X, after SpaceX absorbed Musk’s AI startup in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $250 billion.
The AI division lost $2.5 billion in operating costs in Q1 2026 alone. SpaceX reported a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025 on $18.7 billion in revenue, and a further $4.28 billion net loss in Q1 2026.
The investment thesis rests almost entirely on Starlink scaling and the AI division, which generated $3.2 billion in revenue in 2025, growing to between $190 billion and $322 billion by 2030, depending on which of the two lead underwriters you believe.
Goldman Sachs projects $474 billion in total revenue by 2030; Morgan Stanley projects $330 billion. Both agree on approximately $160 billion by 2028. As TFN reported, the $132 billion gap between the two banks on 2030 AI revenue alone tells you how much of this valuation is projection rather than proof.
One of the most structurally unusual aspects of this IPO is SpaceX’s decision to reserve up to 30% of shares for retail investors, approximately three times the typical 5–10% allocation.
With $75 billion raised, around $22.5 billion in shares are available to individual investors. In the UK, access is available through Revolut, Hargreaves Lansdown, and eToro. In the US, through Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
The broader space economy angle
Beyond the numbers, industry observers expect today’s listing to have structural effects on the entire space sector’s relationship with public market capital.
“A SpaceX IPO would be a landmark moment for the space economy, helping establish space as a mainstream investment category and giving public market investors a clear benchmark for the sector’s potential,” says Mark Boggett, CEO, Seraphim Space.
Beyond launch, the biggest opportunities lie across defence, communications, Earth observation, navigation, energy, climate intelligence, and critical infrastructure. A listing would shine a spotlight on these sectors and help accelerate investment into the next generation of SpaceTech leaders,” he adds.
That view is supported by what happened in the run-up to today’s trading.
Shares of EchoStar, which owns an estimated 3% of SpaceX stock, surged 11% on Thursday, with options volume more than 11 times its 30-day average. AST SpaceMobile jumped 12% in the same session. The SpaceX effect on the broader sector is already visible before a single SPCX share has changed hands in the open market.
What to watch today
The offering is expected to formally close on June 15. Underwriters hold an option to purchase up to a further 83.3 million shares at $135 within 30 days, worth an additional $11.25 billion if exercised.
The first real test of the valuation comes in September 2026, when SpaceX releases its first quarterly earnings as a public company, and investors get their first look at whether AI revenue is growing fast enough to justify paying $1.77 trillion for milestones that have not yet produced a profit.
For the 25% of Gen Z and Millennial UK investors planning to buy today, the question is whether they are early participants in a historic company’s public journey, or the retail liquidity that early institutional investors will be selling into.
The Opinium data suggests most younger investors have made up their minds. The financials suggest the case is more complicated than the narrative allows.
