SpaceX shares gain 17% as trading begins, valuing Elon Musk’s rocket company at more than $2 trillion

SpaceX shares soared on Friday as trading commenced on the Nasdaq, driving the rocket company’s valuation above $2 trillion.

The Elon Musk-led space company’s stock traded 17% higher in midday trading.

“This was a successful launch no doubt about it,” said Jay Woods, chief market strategist from Freedom Capital Markets. “The public demand is there so that’s a good thing, but now we’ll wait to see if it can hold that open price or was it an euphoric retail crowd driving it.”

SpaceX opened at $150 per share, marking a roughly 11% gain over its $135 IPO price. But that number was off the $175 level initially shown in indications of interest to trading desks.

“You have to give it a full trading day, which will be next week,” Woods said. “The initial thoughts on the trading desks were that it could get up to $200.”

Friday’s debut officially crowns Musk as the first trillionaire on record and is expected to mint thousands of new millionaires. But shares of Musk-led Tesla dropped more than 2% in intraday trading.

Shares of space industry stocks tumbled in the wake of SpaceX’s debut with investors shifting focus to the IPO. Redwire and RocketLab tumbled more than 13% and 12%, respectively, in Friday’s session.

SpaceX’s debut is expected to kick off a wave of high-profile IPOs.

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