*Artificial intelligence company crosses over $2trn valuation
Kayode Tokede with agency report
Shares of SpaceX jumped 23 percent in their Nasdaq debut yesterday, as investors piled into the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO), betting on Elon Musk’s sprawling empire spanning rockets, internet services, and artificial intelligence. This made Musk the world’s richest man and its first trillionaire.The stock was last trading at $166 a share after opening for trading at $150, making SpaceX the sixth-largest United States company, with a market value above $2 trillion, Reuters reported.
The company’s debut was widely viewed as a dress rehearsal for a new generation of mega-listings, with market participants watching for signals on investor appetite ahead of forthcoming IPOs for AI heavyweights Anthropic and OpenAI.Musk commemorated SpaceX opening for trading on Nasdaq by attending a ceremonial bell ringing from SpaceX’s South Texas home, Starbase.
Musk’s net worth also includes stock in his separately-run electric car manufacturer, Tesla, as well as ownership stakes in a handful of other ventures, including the brain implant company Neuralink and the tunneling firm The Boring Company.He founded SpaceX in 2002 and has revolutionised the space industry with partly reusable rockets and Starlink, a form of satellite internet that provides service to rural areas, airlines and the Ukrainian army. Musk said SpaceX was going public now because it wants to establish satellites and data centers in space, as well as eventually founding a 1 million-person colony on Mars.
