SpaceX (SPCX) rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday June 12 to celebrate its highly anticipated and largest initial public offering in Wall Street history.
A historic bell-ringing ceremony took place at both Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square and SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell celebrated the company’s transition to the public markets after 24 years as a private entity.
“Today, we make history again — and we have a history of making history. We’re about 22,000 strong, and thanks go to all of you for hanging in there, for keeping a straight spine as the doubters doubt, to achieve historic things every day,” Shotwell said at the Times Square ceremony.
Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer Adena Friedman welcomed SpaceX onto the exchange at the opening bell, saying, “As the home of innovation and the home of the innovation economy, Nasdaq is incredibly proud to be SpaceX’s partner as it builds the physical and digital infrastructure of the future. Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team, and we cannot wait to see what comes next.”
Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX has fundamentally reshaped the global aerospace landscape. In fact, SpaceX made more launch attempts than any individual country in 2025. At Starbase in Texas, Musk said, “A little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever. There are always problems that we want to solve here on Earth, and we are solving them. But there also have to be things that get you excited about the future, that make you glad to wake up in the morning because you can’t wait to see what happens next. That’s the future that SpaceX wants to bring to you.”
He added, “That’s what SpaceX is all about – to take the fiction out of science fiction.”
Beyond its launch capabilities, the company’s portfolio reflects Starlink, its satellite broadband mega-constellation that provides high-speed internet to 164 countries. SpaceX earlier this year integrated Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, SpaceX-AI. This combination allows SpaceX to pair its satellite footprint with computing power – including its proprietary Colossus data centers and the Grok AI model – alongside long-term ambitions to establish orbit-based AI data center networks.
According to its S-1 filing, SpaceX generated $18.67 billion in total revenue last year, driven heavily by Starlink’s recurring subscription model.
Simultaneous to its IPO on the Nasdaq exchange, SpaceX is also dual-listing on Nasdaq Texas. Launched in March, Nasdaq Texas extends the full Nasdaq platform to companies seeking to align with Texas’s growth economy and innovation-friendly regulatory environment. By pairing its primary Nasdaq listing with Nasdaq Texas at the time of its IPO, SpaceX, which has its headquarters in Starbase, Texas, is able to efficiently incorporate a dual listing that signals its connection to one of the country’s most dynamic business ecosystems.
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