SpaceX shares rose significantly on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday during its initial public offering, raising the wealth of its CEO, Elon Musk , to record levels, making him the first person to surpass the trillion-dollar mark amid criticism of his extreme right-wing positions.
The company's stock price rose to $176 in its first session, marking a 31% increase above the initial offering price of $135, before closing at $161.50.
Earlier on Friday, Elon Musk confirmed his intention to send humans to Mars, ahead of his company SpaceX's launch of the largest initial public offering in history.
“SpaceX wants to take you to the moon, and in the long run to Mars, and beyond, and I’m confident that we will achieve that thanks to the great team here at SpaceX,” Musk said from SpaceX headquarters in Texas.
SpaceX, the aerospace company, launched the largest initial public offering in history on Friday, and Musk said from its Texas headquarters, "The company wants to take you to the moon, and to Mars in the long run."
Adam Innes, 35, a wealth management advisor, told AFP, “I’ll buy a share as soon as it goes public, to see how things go. People want to be part of what Elon Musk is building.”
Similarly, about 100 people gathered on Friday morning in front of the Nasdaq buildings in Times Square in New York, where SpaceX advertisements were displayed on giant screens.
SpaceX confirmed on Thursday that its goal for the IPO is to raise $75 billion, which is three times the current record for the largest initial public offering on the stock exchange, currently held by Saudi oil giant Aramco, which raised $25.6 billion in 2019.
For her part, SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell did not rule out the possibility of a merger between SpaceX and Tesla, both of which are run by Musk.
She said, “It is clear that there is complementarity between Tesla and SpaceX (…) and an overlap in what we are trying to achieve.”
SpaceX's self-confidence was such that it allocated a large portion of the new shares to individual investors, who were prepared to inject up to $100 billion to purchase these securities, according to Bloomberg.
Many of them are convinced of the correctness of Musk’s vision, which is based on making the group a multifaceted conglomerate that some see as lacking homogeneity, combining space rockets, artificial intelligence, chips, satellite internet, and a social networking network.
But the group's growth slowed last year, and it lost about five billion dollars in 2025 as a result of huge investments in artificial intelligence.
Jay Ritter argued that “the numbers alone cannot justify such a market value (…) but the market would not have done so if it did not believe, at least minimally, in the optimistic outlook” for SpaceX.
What Elon Musk is selling to investors goes far beyond activities that are already profitable at the moment, such as the Falcon rocket or the Starlink internet network, as it consists of possibilities and markets that have not yet been born, such as the space data center market.
No other company of this size talks about colonizing the moon or Mars the way SpaceX does.
Analysts at Wedbush Securities described SpaceX's stock market listing as "a significant moment for the technology sector in the broadest sense, at a time when the artificial intelligence revolution is entering a new phase."
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend the IPO while checks are conducted to ensure investors are not being defrauded.
What Elon Musk is selling to investors goes far beyond currently profitable ventures like the Falcon rocket or the Starlink internet network; it's about possibilities and markets yet to be born, such as the space data center market.
Nabil Ahmed, from Oxfam USA, believes that “one person owning a trillion dollars is not only contrary to a fair economy, but also to sound democracy.”
On Thursday, protesters erected a huge, nearly ten-meter-high aerial sculpture of a fat man with business-like features in front of the Nasdaq stock exchange headquarters.
They condemned the use of X platform's GROOC AI software to produce images of semi-naked women and children, which are then posted on the social network.
In early January, under pressure, the platform pledged to prevent the creation of this type of content, but a number of observers have shown that this is still possible.
But nothing is likely to disrupt the success that Musk is expected to achieve, and even criticism of his extreme right-wing positions cannot limit him.
Musk under fire over Belfast riots
Elon Musk's crowning as the world's first trillionaire came amid renewed criticism of his far-right views in the wake of anti-immigrant riots in Belfast, after researchers said violent narratives he promoted through his X platform garnered millions of views.
Clashes erupted in the capital of Northern Ireland after a stabbing on Monday of an Irish citizen, for which a Sudanese refugee named Hadi Al-Adid has been charged.
Anti-Islamic graffiti was seen on the walls and metal shutters of shops, and several homes, cars, and shops were set on fire.
Among the targeted shops was “Sham” store for selling Arabic food products, owned by Syrian citizen Abdul Qader Aloush. This is the second time the store has been burned.
Far-right figures, including racist activist Tommy Robinson (whose real name is Stephen Yexley-Lennon), along with Elon Musk, incited the protest in Belfast. Robinson had appeared alongside Elon's father in a video while in St. Petersburg calling for the demonstration.
Elon Musk amplified calls for protests across Britain made by Robinson, writing to his 240 million X followers, “Nothing will change except through repeated and loud protest.”
It also helped to promote the spread of anti-immigration posts and messages by Robert Lowe, leader of the far-right Restore Britain party, helping to get his message across to millions of users on the platform.
Researchers from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported that the trio's posts about Belfast collectively garnered more than 115 million views across their accounts, with Musk alone accounting for 55% of that total.
The center added in a report that “Musk’s amplification of the matter was pivotal” in that it contributed to garnering 64 million views.
Far-right figures, including racist activist Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk, incited riots in Belfast, where anti-Islam slogans were recorded and shops, including one owned by a Syrian national, were set on fire.
Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the center, explained, “As the owner of the X platform and the user with the largest number of followers on it, Musk has unparalleled power to shape and define what people see online. With that power comes responsibility for the content and behavior that his platform promotes.”
He continued, “Nevertheless, our research shows that he exploited the Belfast tragedy to amplify anti-immigrant rhetoric and deliver it to millions of users, triggering endless calls for violence.”
Robinson had previously been banned from using the X platform, but his account was reactivated after Musk bought the platform, along with the accounts of several other influencers accused of promoting misinformation or hate speech, following Musk’s 2022 acquisition of the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Digital Hate Countermeasures Centre explained that it had detected an “explosion of calls inciting violence” in the responses to the trio’s posts about the Belfast riots, including more than 3,900 comments calling for extrajudicial killings and other crimes against immigrants.
He noted that two-thirds of the calls inciting violence appeared in the responses to Robinson's posts.
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