SpaceX

SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history on 12 June 2026, selling shares at $135 on the Nasdaq under ticker SPCX to raise roughly $75 billion, a debut that valued the company near $2 trillion by the close of its first trading day and briefly made it worth more than Tesla. Shares peaked at $225.64 four sessions later before slipping over 30% by month-end, after SpaceX launched a $25 billion bond sale to refinance debt behind its xAI acquisition; OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman cited that volatility on 25 June as one reason for pushing OpenAI's own listing back to 2027.

Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX became the first private company to reach the International Space Station (2012) and the first to land and reuse orbital-class rocket boosters, transforming the economics of spaceflight. It now flies the world's busiest launch manifest and holds NASA's Artemis III and IV Human Landing System contract, worth up to $4.5 billion, though the agency's own inspector general found the Starship-derived lander running two years behind schedule.

SpaceX's reach now spans launch, satellite internet, defence and AI: it shares in a $3.2 billion Golden Dome space-interceptor contract pool alongside Anduril and Lockheed Martin, while its February 2026 all-stock acquisition of xAI ties the rocket business to a loss-making AI lab. Starlink generated $11.4 billion in 2025 revenue with strong margins; xAI lost $6.4 billion the same year, meaning the newly public company now answers to Wall Street for a division still burning cash.