SpaceX went public Friday: Here's what you should know after the first couple days of trading

SpaceX officially hit the market on Friday. The company’s Initial Public Offering was the largest ever, and made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. 

Before the IPO, the company was valued at around $1.77 trillion: 13.1 billion shares, valued at $135 apiece.

First couple of days on the market:

SpaceX stock opened at around $150 per share on Friday, and ended its first day on the market at about $160.. By the end of Monday, SpaceX stock was over $190 per share, seeing a 40% increase from its initial valuation of $135.

With the Quiver API and MCP server, you can get access to dozens of unique datasets that could give insights into dozens of datasets that could impact the stock going forward (include our data on corporate lobbying, government contracts, and congressional stock trading).

Here’s an overview of some other factors to keep in mind when evaluating how the stock could perform over the coming months:

Several index providers adjusted their rules to make room for SpaceX

Index Providers, like Nasdaq, FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones, usually require companies to have a probationary period after their IPO before they’re eligible to be part of certain indices. This is done to accurately value stocks once they are on the market and prevent a volatile market resulting from forced buying and liquidation periods.

But because SpaceX is expected to shake up the market, index providers are rethinking their probationary periods and fast-tracking entry into benchmark indices. Major index providers' new rules won’t just affect SpaceX, but will also make it easier for other large companies filing IPOs to join benchmark indices, such as Anthropic and OpenAI. 

In the past, index providers have typically required 12 months after a company’s IPO before debuting on the benchmark indices, with mega-cap IPOs receiving a shorter window. Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, Nasdaq shortened its probationary period for mega-cap IPOs from three months to just 15 days, and MSCI fast-tracked the entry so SpaceX could join just 10 days after. FTSE Russell and CRSP have approved a probationary period of just five days.

S&P Dow Jones, on the other hand, rejected requests to shorten the probationary window. S&P says a company should not be added purely based on Market Capitalization — other indicators of success, like profitability, should also be considered. But SpaceX fell short on profits in 2025, reporting a $4.9 4billion net loss.

With S&P’s rejection, SpaceX won’t appear on the S&P 500 until midway through 2025.

While SpaceX's is still unprofitable, its government contracts have been steady

In addition to the company’s net loss in 2025 of $4.94 billion, the company also reported in the IPO’s risk factors that it has “a history of net losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.” Its history includes a net loss of $4.63 billion in 2023 and a net loss of $4.28 billion in Q1 of 2026. Cumulatively, the company has reported $41.3 billion in losses.

But SpaceX's struggle with profitability does not necessarily reflect the company’s demand — most of its losses came from AI products and space launches, which the IPO filing also stated may never become profitable. 

Instead, SpaceX generates nearly a quarter of its revenue from one relatively reliable source: the U.S. government, namely NASA and the Department of Defense. Since its inception, the company has received a reported $25 billion in federal contracts. Over $17 billion has come from NASA, while $7.88 billion was awarded by the DoD. Some reports even suspect SpaceX has received more from the federal government than is publicly reported. 

Contracts with SpaceX have centered around space exploration and connectivity (Starlink). Connectivity has been one of the main services used by NASA and the DoD for satellite communications, missile tracking and intelligence. But SpaceX has also received billions for research and development of space launch, transportation and landing systems. 

Musk holds the overwhelming majority of voting shares

Musk’s net worth reached $1 trillion from the SpaceX IPO, making him the world’s first and only trillionaire. According to the prospectus filed, Musk owns over 6 billion shares of Class A and B common stock and will retain over 84% of voting power after the IPO. 

Since Musk retains over 84% of voting power, he will still have final say in company policies and decisions, rather than shareholders.

Musk’s employees could also reach millionaire or billionaire status. SpaceX employees have the option to purchase shares of Class C stock. Before the company’s IPO, those shares were illiquid, so employees could not monetize them. 

Now, with the company’s IPO, employees will benefit from the option to liquidate those shares. For long-term employees who have built up large portions of shares over time, this could mean raking in thousands to millions of dollars. 

But with the option for employees to liquidate their shares, this could cause the price of SpaceX stock to spike and fall suddenly once it hits the market. Another reason why the value of the company’s stock will be volatile for some time after the IPO.