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SpaceX IPO brings Starship to NYC | Space photo of the day for June 16, 2026
The IPO made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire.
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For better or for worse, the world has its first trillionaire: Elon Musk.
On Friday (June 12), Musk's rocket company SpaceX made its debut on the Nasdaq, marking the largest IPO in history. With a staggering $1.78 trillion dollar valuation, it made Musk the first-ever trillionaire during the first 20 minutes or so of trading.
And to mark the occasion, SpaceX's giant Starship rocket was broadcast on the side of a skyscraper in New York City. On another skyscraper just to the left, Musk himself was featured.
SpaceX's tremendous IPO started trading at around $150 a share on opening day, ultimately closing that same day at $160.95 a share. It has since been a big topic of discussion among financial experts and amateur traders alike.
The 19.2% gain that SpaceX's stock (trading under the ticker symbol SPCX) experienced on opening day took the company to a $2.1 trillion market capitalization, according to Yahoo Finance.
SpaceX, however, isn't alone in getting past a trillion in market cap this year. Also according to Yahoo Finance, Walmart (WMT) did the same on Feb. 3, as did Micron Technology (MU) on May 26. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) was the first company ever to top a trillion in market cap, doing so in August of 2018.
Still, Musk is the first person to have a net worth above a trillion (though, to be clear, most of that money remains in his stock holdings).
It's fitting that Starship was the chosen vehicle to be broadcast in celebration of the SpaceX IPO instead of, perhaps, the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which has sent astronauts to the International Space Station time and again.