Elon Musk’s rocket company’s stock rises 19% on debut, pushing SpaceX’s market cap past $2 trillion

space x Shares soared when trading began on Friday. Nasdaqthe rocket company’s valuation exceeded $2 trillion after a record initial public offering.

Shares of Elon Musk’s space company rose 19.3% to $161.11 per share, giving it a market value of about $2.1 trillion. At the session high, the stock traded at $176.52.

“This was a successful launch, there’s no question about it,” said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “Public demand is there, so that’s good. But now we’ll see if we can maintain that published price or if the ecstatic crowd at retailers has pushed that price up.”

SpaceX’s opening price was $150 per share, an increase of about 11% over its IPO price of $135. However, this number was lower than the $175 level initially indicated as a sign of interest in the trading desk.

“We have to give it a full trading day, and that will be next week,” Woods said. “The trading desk’s initial thinking was that it could go up to $200.”

With Friday’s debut, Musk was officially crowned the first billionaire on record. The IPO is expected to create thousands of new millionaires and multiple new billionaires.

goldman sachs It rose about 3% in Friday trading, with traders praising the company’s role as the leading left-wing bookrunner on the SpaceX deal. Goldman was on track to become the market’s biggest gainer. Invesco KBW Bank ETF (KWBW).

But space industry stocks fell as investors shifted their focus to SpaceX. red wire and rocket lab They fell more than 10% and 8%, respectively, in Friday trading. The Procure Space ETF (UFO) fell more than 6%.

teslaanother company led by Mr. Musk, swung between gains and losses in Friday trading. The electric car maker, a top stock among retail investors, is worth less than SpaceX in terms of market capitalization.

Retail traders raced to participate in SpaceX’s IPO on the back of widespread support for Mr. Musk in the wake of Tesla’s success. However, SpaceX allocated a smaller portion of its IPO than expected to the retail industry, one person told CNBC.

Still, SpaceX became the most-bought stock by retail traders online on Friday and is on track to be the biggest IPO debut for retail investors in recent history, Vandatrack data shows. It was also one of the most talked about brands. redditThe WallStreetBets forum was popular in the days leading up to the IPO, according to meme stock tracker Breakout Point.

“Market sentiment reflects that the book appears to have been pretty solid,” said Dan Alpert, founding managing partner at Westwood Capital. “Those who were only able to get a fraction of the shares they requested are now looking for a stable market to buy from.”

Large investors have quietly built up stakes in SpaceX as a private company for nearly two decades. But some market participants are raising red flags about investing in SpaceX’s IPO, citing concerns about valuation and potential growth hurdles for the Starlink business.

SpaceX’s debut is expected to start a wave of high-profile IPOs. Anthropic and OpenAI have both confidentially filed prospectuses with regulators in recent weeks.

“We didn’t know if we were going to go public,” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s head of operations, told CNBC in an exclusive interview. But she said now “actually feels like the right time.”

— CNBC’s John Meloy and Tobias Burns contributed to this report.