The ASX 200 leapt by 1.77 per cent on opening after US President Donald Trump said in a social media post that “all parties” involved in the Middle East conflict approved a deal. He later told reporters at the White House he expected a signing ceremony to take place in Europe this weekend, and that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen shortly afterwards. Wall Street stocks spiked — with the S&P 500 finishing 1.8 per cent higher — and oil prices tumbled 2 per cent
on the news. It’s all very good timing for Elon Musk as his space exploration and AI company SpaceX confirmed it will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange tonight in the biggest initial public offering in history, a blockbuster market debut that could propel the entrepreneur to trillionaire status. Not everyone is pleased about the move. On the eve of the trading launch, activists displayed a giant inflatable Mr Musk outside Nasdaq’s offices to protest the ability to create fake sexualised images using xAI’s Grok
chatbot. $1.8 trillion frenzy In a filing with the US markets regulator, the company priced more than 555 million shares at $135 each, placing SpaceX in the top 10 of Wall Street’s biggest companies with a valuation of just under $1.8 trillion. It will be valued more than Mr Musk’s own Tesla car company, Facebook-owner Meta and Walmart. The offering will raise a record US$75 billion ($106 billion), easily outranking Saudi Aramco’s US$29.4 billion ($41.7 billion) debut in 2019, until now the biggest ever. If
the stock launch is a massive hit, the banks have pre-approval to sell a giant bonus batch of shares, which would push the total above US$86 billion ($122 billion) if exercised in full. The space and rocket company, co-founded by Mr Musk in 2002, will trade under the ticker symbol “SPCX,” with a parallel listing on Nasdaq Texas. All eyes will be on how Wall Street absorbs the offering, which could send tremors across global markets. SpaceX will be the first out of the gates
among the tech and AI giants eyeing public markets, with OpenAI and Anthropic expected to follow — both having recently filed with regulators for their own market debuts. As is traditional for high-profile debuts, executives are expected to ring the opening bell on Friday to mark the start of the session — in this case at New York’s Times Square, home of the Nasdaq. The IPO is Mr Musk’s biggest financial gamble yet, with his xAI company and the X social media platform (formerly Twitter)
also included in the offering after the multi-billionaire folded them into the company earlier this year. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America led a syndicate of more than 20 banks on the deal. The offering was more than four times oversubscribed by major banks and financial institutions, according to Bloomberg, with interest from everyday investors reported to be high. The frenzy is attracting so much interest in Australia that Commonwealth Bank’s trading platform CommSec was struggling to keep up with demand, despite opening
on the Kings birthday public holiday to take calls in a highly unusual move. Those looking to take part in the Space X IPO on Friday were waiting up to an hour to speak to someone. More than 20 per cent of the shares will be reserved for these retail investors, a far greater proportion than is typically allocated in IPOs, giving Mr Musk’s legions of fans a chance to buy a slice of the company. Data centres in space The success of the IPO
rests squarely on investors’ faith in Mr Musk as a visionary entrepreneur. The tech multi-billionaire will serve as chief executive, chief technology officer and board chairman of the newly traded company. The IPO is expected to mint thousands of new millionaires and many billionaires, with former and current employees — and a long list of investors — from the company’s near quarter-century history looking to cash in. The financials of the company are giving some on Wall Street pause, as the valuation largely depends on
Mr Musk delivering on promises worthy of science fiction, including putting data centres in space and humans on Mars using as yet unproven technology. While the company is growing fast — revenue hit US$18.7 billion ($26.5 billion) in 2025 — it is also losing money, producing a net loss of US$4.9 billion ($6.9 billion). In an extraordinary prediction, SpaceX’s filing claims it can pull in over US$28.5 trillion ($40 trillion) in revenue from its various markets. A successful IPO could make him the first trillionaire
in history on Friday. Mr Musk’s fortune on Thursday stood at US$782 billion ($1.1 trillion), according to the Forbes list of the world’s richest people, nearing three times the wealth of number two, Google co-founder Larry Page. “A trillion dollars in the hands of one man is incompatible not only with an affordable economy, but also with a healthy democracy,” said Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America.
SpaceX IPO, Nasdaq, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, S&P 500, oil prices, Strait of Hormuz, xAI Grok, activism, CommSec, SP CX ticker
So wait, stocks went up because a guy on social media said “all parties” approved a deal? Sounds made up but I guess people believed it.
SpaceX IPO is tonight and it’s the biggest in history?? That’s insane. But also why are they protesting fake sexual images like that’s somehow about the IPO and not the app.
They said Strait of Hormuz would reopen shortly after, so oil dropped right? I don’t get how one post can do all that. Also Elon’s already a trillionaire like… it’s going to happen anyway, right?
Activists with a Mr Musk inflatable outside Nasdaq is wild. I read that Grok can make fake images so I’m like great cool now the whole market is funded by horny AI or whatever. Isn’t SpaceX supposed to be rockets not whatever this is, lol.