SpaceX goes public and is now worth trillions. What happens now?

Summary

Consider This from NPR: SpaceX Goes Public and is Now Worth Trillions – What Happens Now?

Date: June 12, 2026
Host: Mary Louise Kelly
Guests: Jeff Brumfiel (NPR Science Correspondent), John Ruich (NPR Tech Reporter)
Duration: ~10 min (content)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the spectacular debut of SpaceX on the public market—an event that shattered records and instantly made SpaceX one of the most valuable companies on earth. The hosts and guests discuss the implications for SpaceX, CEO Elon Musk, investors, and the future of space and AI industries, bringing context and clarity to the hype and the risks.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Historic SpaceX IPO and Initial Market Surge

• Opening and Valuation:
  • SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) raised $75 billion, more than double the previous IPO record.
    • "[The] IPO was the biggest in history. SpaceX raised $75 billion. That's more than twice the previous record." – John Ruich [03:57]
  • Stock opened at $150, peaked at $176, and closed just under $161, up over 19% in a single day.
    • "A lot of early investors and employees in the company got rich today, or richer…" – John Ruich [04:28]

2. Elon Musk’s Personal Fortune and Power

• Musk owns close to 40% of the company, with a stake now worth around $800 billion, likely making him the world’s first trillionaire.
  • "He probably became the planet’s first trillionaire today." – John Ruich [04:37]
• Despite being a public company, Musk retains 80%+ of shareholder voting control and full control of the board.
  • "He has an iron grip on the company. He’s CEO. He will control the board of directors. He holds more than 80% of the voting power of shareholders." – John Ruich [08:45]

3. Is SpaceX Really Worth $2 Trillion?

• SpaceX is not profitable—lost $5B last year, $4B just in the most recent quarter.
  • "According to the financial documents released ahead [of] the IPO, SpaceX is actually losing money. It lost $5 billion last year and another 4 billion in the first quarter of this year." – Jeff Brumfiel [05:09]
  • Major losses are attributed to the company’s aggressive moves in AI, which formerly came under Musk’s company xAI.
  • Analysts estimate “true” value far lower, with Morningstar’s fair value per share at $63, a fraction of the market price.
    • "Analysts at the investment research company Morningstar ... think a fair value per share ... is $63, which is a lot less than it is now." – John Ruich [05:47]

4. What’s Driving the Hype?

• Limited shares (just 4% floated in IPO) and exuberant demand are inflating the price.
  • "Today there’s limited supply and exuberant demand." – Mary Louise Kelly [06:11]
• SpaceX is being rapidly included in stock indexes, so millions will own shares via funds, intentionally or not.

5. SpaceX’s Ambitious Vision

• Mission statement emphasizes making life multiplanetary and exploring the universe.
  • "Our mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multi planetary, to understand the true nature of the universe and to extend the light of consciousness to, to the stars. That might be worth two trillion." – Jeff Brumfiel reading SpaceX’s mission statement [06:45]
• Much of the company’s future rides on the Starship rocket, which is behind schedule and extremely expensive.
  • "Starship is behind schedule. It’s costing the company billions to develop, but if it works, it will reduce the cost of sending things to space." – Jeff Brumfiel [07:05]
• SpaceX President Gwen Shotwell’s message to employees:
  • "Thank you for hanging in there, for keeping a straight spine as the doubters doubt." – Mary Louise Kelly quoting Shotwell [07:34]

6. The IPO Trend and Broader Industry Context

• Other blockbuster IPOs coming this year: AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI, each aiming at around $1T valuations.
  • "A lot of this comes down to we don’t really know just how big the market is for AI or what it’s going to be used for. So, you know, a lot of this stuff is really betting on the future." – Jeff Brumfiel [08:04]
• The high valuations in both space and AI are based more on potential and vision than current numbers.

7. Elon Musk’s Growing Influence

• Musk’s effective control of SpaceX despite going public means investors have little ability to check his decisions.
  • "He ends up more powerful in some ways than ever. And, you know, he’s really put himself at the center of his own universe." – John Ruich [08:45]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Elon Musk’s candor on SpaceX’s origins:
  • "If people had told me this was gonna happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack because I think this company's gonna fail." – Elon Musk [00:34]
• SpaceX’s mission, in Musk’s own words:
  • "We should give it a try because if ... there’s not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly spacefaring civilization." – Elon Musk [00:51]
  • "That’s what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction." – Elon Musk [01:33]
• Skepticism about current valuation:
  • "Even SpaceX’s supporters would tell you the business as it is today is not worth $2 trillion." – Jeff Brumfiel [05:09]
• John Ruich’s summation of Musk’s power post-IPO:
  • "He’s really put himself at the center of his own universe." [08:45]

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Timestamps for Significant Segments

• [00:01–03:25] — Introduction & opening reactions to IPO
• [03:25–04:56] — Market details: IPO numbers, day-of trading, Musk’s new wealth
• [04:56–06:37] — Company’s true value vs. market hype, analyst views
• [06:37–07:56] — SpaceX's mission, plans for Starship, company ambitions
• [07:56–08:45] — Comparison to upcoming AI IPOs, industry context
• [08:45–09:31] — Elon Musk’s enduring and increased control
• [09:31–10:22] — Wrap-up and credits

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Takeaway

SpaceX’s IPO marks a financial and cultural milestone, both for public markets and the vision of a multiplanetary future. The company’s present market worth is driven more by hype and vision than current profits or output—reflecting extreme investor enthusiasm (and risk) for high-tech dreams. With Elon Musk more powerful than ever, the world will watch to see whether SpaceX can deliver on its grand promises or if it becomes the poster child for tech exuberance outpacing reality.

Transcript

[Mary Louise Kelly]

It's consider this where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, SpaceX debuts on the stock market. That's the NASDAQ opening bell Friday morning. It was a big day for the tech market and SpaceX and for regular investors who can now buy the company's shares. That is because the SpaceX IPO, initial public offering, shattered records valued at $75 billion. And that was before today's trading started.

[Elon Musk]

And let me tell you, if people had told me this was gonna happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack because I think this company's gonna fail.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Watching the opening bell from Starbase in Texas was CEO Elon Musk.

[Elon Musk]

In fact, I told people this, I said, look, we're probably gonna fail, but you know, we should give it a try because if we don't, if there's not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space faring civilization.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

That historic IPO is likely to make Musk the world's first trillionaire. And while SpaceX is not profitable yet, investors have big expectations for the company in space and artificial intelligence.

[Elon Musk]

You know, while the other aerospace companies, they build good rockets and everything, they, they were simply not pursuing the technology that's necessary to make life multiplanetary,

[John Ruich]

To

[Elon Musk]

make Star Trek, to make the exciting science fiction futures that we've read about real. And that's what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Consider this, one of the world's biggest companies is now publicly traded and it's leaning heavily into space and AI. What does that mean for us humans here on Earth? From npr, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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[John Ruich]

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[Jeff Brumfiel]

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[John Ruich]

I don't know. I've never seen this happen.

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This is true.

[Elon Musk]

This is true.

[John Ruich]

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[Mary Louise Kelly]

It's consider this from NPR. Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, had a banner first day in the stock market. The company is now valued at more than 2 trillion. That is after an already record breaking IPO. To make sense of it, we are joined by NPR's Jeff Brumfiel who covers space, and John Ruich who covers tech. Hi you two.

[John Ruich]

Hey there.

[Jeff Brumfiel]

To the moon, Mary Louise.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

I hope so. Okay, so John, kick us off. What more can you tell us about this IPO and SpaceX's first day trading?

[John Ruich]

Yeah, the IPO was the biggest in history. SpaceX raised $75 billion. That's more than twice the previous record. And demand was high for the ipo. That was borne out actually when it started trading on the NASDAQ today. The Stock opened at $150, which was above expectations, rose to as high as 176 during the day, lost a little steam, and ended just shy of $161. But the bottom line is that it was up over 19% on the day. A lot of early investors and employees in the company got rich today, or

[Mary Louise Kelly]

richer, including Elon Musk, who is already incredibly, insanely rich. How much richer is Elon Musk at the end of today?

[John Ruich]

Yeah, it's hard to know exactly, but a little back of the envelope math, you know. Musk owns close to 40% of SpaceX's shares, stake is now worth around $800 billion with a B plus. He owns a chunk of Tesla shares and has stakes in other companies. So he probably became the planet's first trillionaire today.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Holy cow. Okay, this closing price has the value of SpaceX well above $2 trillion trillion with a T. Jeff, you track SpaceX, is it worth that much?

[Jeff Brumfiel]

I think even SpaceX's supporters would tell you the business as it is today is not worth $2 trillion. According to the financial documents released ahead, the IPO. SpaceX is actually losing money. It lost $5 billion last year and another 4 billion in the first quarter of this year. A lot of those losses are due to the AI side of the business, which used to be Musk's other company, Xai. It's been burning cash at this incredible rate. It's sort of a financial black hole, if you will. Even without the losses though, the rocket and satellite company are probably worth far less Somewhere in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

[John Ruich]

Yeah. Just to add on to what Jeff is saying here, analysts at the investment research company Morningstar did a deep dive into SpaceX's core businesses. They crunched some numbers around what they think is likely or probable at this moment in terms of the company achieving its goals in space and AI. And they think a fair value per share of this company is $63, which is a lot less than it is now. Nicholas Owens is financial analyst at Morningstar.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

I would argue that for the next week, really what you're looking at is simple supply and demand. Today there's limited supply and exuberant demand.

[John Ruich]

Yeah. On the supply front, the company only floated about 4% of its outstanding shares, so not much in terms of demand. There's a lot of hype and excitement, but even for people who aren't actively buying these shares, SpaceX is likely to end up in their portfolios because it's being included in a few stock indexes earlier than normal.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

So, Jeff, back to you. What does the company need to do to actually meet these very high flying expectations?

[Jeff Brumfiel]

Well, I mean, I think the company itself, I just want to read their mission statement and their documents, Mary Louise, because it really gives a sense of their ambition. Our mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multi planetary, to understand the true nature of the universe and to extend the light of consciousness to, to the stars. That might be worth to trillion.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

No big deal there.

[Jeff Brumfiel]

Yeah, right, exactly. The first step to getting to that kind of evaluation is to build this giant rocket called Starship. Now, Starship is behind schedule. It's costing the company billions to develop, but if it works, it will reduce the cost of sending things to space. Speaking at the opening bell today, SpaceX President Gwen Shotwell sounded a defiant note as she addressed her employees. She said, they've proven the skeptics wrong before.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

The thank yous go to all of you for hanging in there, for keeping a straight spine as the doubters doubt.

[Jeff Brumfiel]

But Starship is a lot more complicated than SpaceX's other rockets. So for all these dreams to happen, it's going to take a lot of work. I don't think anyone's ever been able to build a rocket quite like it. We'll have to see what happens.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Worth noting, today's IPO is the first of several blockbuster IPOs we expect this year. Jeff, tell us about those.

[Jeff Brumfiel]

Yeah, that's right. I mean, the other big two are Anthropic and OpenAI, the big AI companies. They're each ballparked at around a trillion dollar valuations. And like SpaceX, there's a lot of fuzziness about how much they're actually worth. A lot of this comes down to we don't really know just how big the market is for AI or what it's going to be used for. So, you know, a lot of this stuff is is really betting on the

[Mary Louise Kelly]

future, I'd say, John, just to let you land us and circle back around to the possibly as of today, trillionaire Elon Musk. We've talked a lot about that, just how much money that is, but how much more powerful is he as a result of this ipo?

[John Ruich]

I think you could say a lot. When companies go public like this and start selling shares to ordinary people, it usually means that those investors will be able to have more say in how a company's running. But here, the investors will have very limited ability to check Musk. He has an iron grip on the company. He's CEO. He will control the board of directors. He holds more than 80% of the voting power of shareholders. Elon Musk obviously has his fans. There are a lot of believers. There are a lot of people buying the stock today because they think his vision is brilliant. Frankly, he's highly controversial also. And so I think today he ends up more powerful in some ways than ever. And, you know, he's really put himself at the center of his own universe.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

And here's John Ruich and Jeff Brumfiel. Thanks to you both.

[John Ruich]

Thank you.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

This episode was produced by Alejandra Marquez Heinze with audio engineering by Ted Mebane and Becky Brown. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Patrick Jaran Watananan. Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning. And a big thank you to our Consider THIS plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and help keep public radio strong. Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors and unlock bonus episodes of Consider this. You can Learn more at plus.NPR.org It's Consider this from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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