SpaceX had an explosive start on its first day as a publicly traded company The shares of Elon Musk's company closed up 19% from the initial public offering price, marking a historic milestone in financial markets
The debut took place on the Nasdaq, where the shares started at $150, 11% above the placement price of $135 During the day, they reached a high of $176, boosting the company's market capitalization to nearly $2.3 trillion At the close, they were at $160.95
This strong demand did not surprise analysts The IPO was oversubscribed by four times, according to Bloomberg data, leaving many institutional investors without shares in the initial placement and forced to buy in the open market
Limited supply and adapted rules
Additionally, only about 4% of the shares are available to the public, as the rest remains in the hands of early investors and employees SpaceX also managed to get several stock indices, such as the Nasdaq 100, to modify their inclusion rules to add it quickly
This accelerates the company's entry into the indices, which will generate automatic purchases by funds and large institutions in the coming days Platforms like Robinhood reported record traffic on their systems during the hours following the debut
The launch represents one of the largest returns in venture capital history For example, Founders Fund, which invested $600 million and owns 3% of the company, saw its holdings valued at over $50 billion at the initial IPO price
