SpaceX on Thursday priced the largest-ever US initial public offering at $135 per share, making Elon Musk’s rocket and spacecraft maker one of the world’s most valuable companies.

The IPO raised a record $75 billion on the sale of 555.56 million shares, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at $1.77 trillion, a record for an initial offering. SpaceX will rank seventh among US-listed companies when its shares begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, although it lost money last year and other mega-caps far outpace its revenue. Thursday’s prices capped a months-long effort that brought Musk’s most ambitious project to fruition even as it turned a handful of financial traditions on their heads, and some analysts questioned whether its lofty valuation was justified.

With the pricing, SpaceX shares will open for trading on Friday that are more valued than companies as diverse as JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly, as well as tech giants such as Meta Platforms and Musk’s own Tesla.

The largest IPO before SpaceX was Saudi Aramco’s December 2019 offering, which raised $25.6 billion at a $1.71 trillion valuation. In inflation-adjusted terms, Aramco raised $33.2 billion at a valuation of $2.21 trillion. The company’s $1.77 trillion valuation, based on 13.08 billion shares outstanding, could rise further if the underwriters exercise their right to sell additional shares, a decision typically made within 30 days of the offering. Reuters previously reported that SpaceX was seeking a $1.75 trillion valuation. SpaceX set aside 30% of the shares for retail buyers, an unusually large number, and set the offering price Thursday before a road show that bankers and investors have long used to negotiate IPO terms. Musk also pushed, with mixed results, for early index inclusion that would create a broader base of buyers of SpaceX stock and structure the company’s governance to maintain strong founder control. Musk will own 82% of SpaceX after the IPO. The US IPO market is poised to recover quickly this year after earlier bouts of volatility. Goldman Sachs predicts that revenue could quadruple to a record $160 billion in 2026, driven by a pipeline that includes not only SpaceX, but also artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic.

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SPACEX revenue depends on Starlink

SpaceX said last week it had entered into a multiyear cloud services agreement with Alphabet’s Google, locking in computing capacity at a time of growing competition.

Founded in 2002, SpaceX defines its mission as “to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, understand the true nature of the universe, and extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” SpaceX said its market cap spanned $28.5 trillion, the largest in human history.

Its space operation accounts for four-fifths of the mass launched into orbit over the past three years, while its Starlink Internet unit “connects millions of consumer, enterprise and government customers in 164 countries, territories and other markets.” Starlink currently accounts for most of SpaceX’s revenue.

The lion’s share of its putative addressable market comes from xAI, which is widely viewed by OpenAI and Anthropic, though SpaceX says the combination of its AI computing infrastructure, its model and its access to real-time data on X “creates a significant strategic advantage.”

Obstacles to the company at its hefty valuation include efforts by rivals such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to accelerate the commercialization of space and push for government contracts to unlock new markets beyond Earth.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Citigroup and JP Morgan are joint book-running managers for the offering.