SpaceX is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX on June 12 at a fixed price of $135 per share, targeting a $75 billion raise at an estimated valuation of approximately $1.77 trillion dollars. This represents nearly three times the previous record set by Saudi Aramco's 2019 listing, which raised about $25-29 billion dollars. At the IPO price, SpaceX would immediately rank among the top seven most valuable publicly traded companies in the United States. The company generated approximately $19 billion in revenue last year, driven by launches, government contracts and its rapidly growing Starlink satellite internet business. Starlink has been reported as the only consistently profitable GAAP segment, while the group as a whole remains loss-making on a GAAP basis as SpaceX continues to invest heavily in Starship development and AI infrastructure. However, SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025, highlighting the company's ongoing investment phase.
The SpaceX IPO has created unprecedented retail investor demand, with retail investors submitting more than $100 billion in orders for the offering, overwhelming allocations available through traditional brokerages. As reported by Bloomberg, this demand spilled beyond traditional trading venues, with investors seeking alternative ways to participate in one of the most anticipated public debuts in years. The result was a market struggling to settle on a single narrative, with investors lurching between macroeconomic developments and speculative trades. By one measure, the Nasdaq 100 this week posted its largest average intraday swings since April 2025, reflecting the market's inability to find stability amid the SpaceX mania. Unlike past IPO frenzies, demand did not stop at the traditional order book, with investors unable to secure shares looking for exposure elsewhere through alternative trading venues.
The SpaceX mania has sparked an explosion in alternative trading products, with more than 20 SpaceX-linked ETFs already filed, ranging from leveraged and inverse products to options-based strategies. According to Bloomberg, a leveraged ETF tied to SpaceX surged more than 80% before grinding to a halt Friday, citing regulatory concern. The activity has spilled into crypto-native markets, with investors trading perpetual futures linked to the company on the decentralized platform Hyperliquid. Polymarket has generated more than $25 million of volume across SpaceX-related contracts, while the $2 billion Baron First Principles ETF has seen big pre-IPO inflows. ETF issuers who once waited months after an IPO to launch related products are now racing to file almost immediately, underscoring the speed with which Wall Street moves to package speculative demand.
According to latest data from JPMorgan, hedge funds engaged in significant position adjustments ahead of SpaceX's public debut. Magnificent Seven stocks, including Nvidia, Apple, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, and Microsoft, have all declined since last Friday as investors decided to dial down their risk positions. Some speculators jumped in to buy the dip, while in the U.S., software stocks were deeply sold late last week while semi conductor makers garnered strong demand. The selling pressure extended beyond tech, with financial firm themed ETFs being the most bought over the last week, though hedge funds were mixed on financials with some selling banks. Meanwhile, funds favoured traditional asset managers over alternative asset managers, and the insurance sector remained heavily sold year-to-date with traders having far fewer wagers on these companies than in the past.
Despite legal challenges, investor sentiment has remained positive, with brokerage firm Oppenheimer initiating coverage of SpaceX with an outperform rating and a $190 price target, above the company's expected IPO price of $135. SpaceX and Elon Musk's xAI are facing legal scrutiny following a lawsuit filed by former engineer Devin Kim in California's Santa Clara County Superior Court. However, the IPO is deliberately designed as a retail event, with reports indicating that 30% of IPO shares could be allocated to retail investors via platforms such as Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi, and ETRADE*. BTSE offers perpetual contracts on AI and tech stocks, settled in USDT, tradable 24/7, allowing crypto traders to access traditional markets from the same platform they use for crypto assets. The products used to express speculative views are becoming large enough to influence trading in the broader market, with strategists estimating that leveraged ETFs now generate roughly $8 billion of rebalancing demand for every 1% move in the market.
