SpaceX, Explained: 8 Things That Matter the Most After the IPO - CNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Some days, Elon Musk is worth $1 trillion. Other days, he's merely an absurdly wealthy billionaire. SpaceX could end up in your retirement account next. When SpaceX’s initial public offering debuted on June 12, it broke a Wall Street record as the highest-valued IPO in financial history, raising over $75 billion in cold, hard cash. The Frankensteined amalgamation of Elon Musk’s aerospace and AI ventures is now one of the world’s largest-traded companies, with a public valuation hovering around $2 trillion. Since xAI is bundled inside SpaceX, this also marks the first time an AI giant has entered the public market, beating out competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. After years of private tech firms closing the books on public investment, a wave of fresh IPOs has sparked a frenzy among retail investors hungry for a piece of the biggest companies in the world. That fever is what made SpaceX’s public