There are IPOs, there are big IPOs, and then there is SpaceX.
The Elon Musk-run company will begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, June 12, in what is set to be the largest initial public offering in history.
It is bigger than Saudi Aramco's 2019 record, and large enough that even Indian investors who never buy a single share may end up owning a slice of it. How so? We will get to that.
The Numbers
SpaceX has set a fixed price of $135 per share, skipping Wall Street's traditional book-building process, to raise $75 billion at a valuation of nearly $1.75 trillion, or roughly Rs 150 lakh crore.
The issue size alone works out to over Rs 6.4 lakh crore, larger than the market capitalisation of all but a handful of Indian companies.
The company is selling 555.6 million Class A shares, with underwriters holding an option for another 83.33 million shares worth $11.2 billion. At the offer price, SpaceX would become the seventh-most valuable company in the US, ahead of Tesla, which is valued at about $1.6 trillion.
To put things into perspective, Saudi Aramco's record-holding IPO raised $25.6 billion. SpaceX is nearly three times that size.
The stock will trade under the ticker 'SPCX', not to be confused with 'SPCE', which belongs to Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
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Not Just A Rocket Company
SpaceX's offer document describes a three-engine business, and rockets are the smallest of them.
Starlink, the satellite internet arm, dominates with 61% of total revenue. The launch business contributes 22%, while the AI segment adds 17%.
The AI piece comprises X platform advertising, subscriptions and xAI's compute business, folded in after a February 2026 merger. The company posted revenue of $18.7 billion in 2025 but reported a net loss of $4.9 billion, and carried long-term debt of $29.1 billion as of March-end.
The prospectus is unusually candid about where the money goes. SpaceX has spent over $15 billion developing Starship, the next-generation rocket at the heart of Musk's Mars ambitions.
The filing pitches a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion, described as the largest in human history, spanning space exploration, global connectivity and artificial intelligence. In effect, the market is being asked to price a satellite broadband utility, a Mars rocket programme and an AI moonshot in a single ticker.
As for peers, there is no clean comparison. The company's closest functional equivalent is arguably NASA, which is not listed on any exchange, and which also happens to be one of SpaceX's biggest customers.
Can Indians Apply?
Not directly. Unlike India's ASBA-based system, where retail investors bid for allotments, US IPO allocations are controlled by underwriters, and India does not figure in SpaceX's retail allocation list.
The practical route opens after listing. Indian investors can buy the stock through international brokerage platforms under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which permits remittances of up to $2,50,000 per financial year for overseas investments.
Any purchase will happen at whatever price the Nasdaq sets, which may be well above or below $135. Domestic feeder funds and GIFT City schemes do not currently hold SpaceX, so the mutual fund route will take time to open up.
You Might Own It Anyway
Here's the twist: passive investors may get exposure without lifting a finger. Under Nasdaq's new fast-entry rules, SpaceX is expected to join the Nasdaq 100 just 15 days after listing.
That would trigger an estimated $22–27 billion in forced buying from index funds tracking the benchmark, including Indian fund-of-funds that mirror the Nasdaq 100. The S&P 500, however, has not relaxed its profitability-linked entry rules, keeping SpaceX out of that index for now.
The India Connection
The business itself is arriving on Indian shores. Starlink has secured its telecom and space-sector approvals and is expected to launch commercially in India in 2026, with the government initially capping the service at 20 lakh connections.
Reported pricing, with a hardware kit upwards of Rs. 30,000 and monthly plans starting around Rs. 3,000, pitches it well above fibre broadband, aimed squarely at regions that Jio and Airtel's cables don't reach.
The Risks
The valuation leaves little room for error. SpaceX itself has warned that the stock could be volatile, partly because as much as 30% of the IPO, around $22.5 billion, has been reserved for retail investors, far above the 5–10% typical of large US offerings. Retail access is being routed through platforms including Fidelity, Robinhood, Charles Schwab, SoFi and E-Trade.
Then there is governance. Musk will control over 82% of voting power after the offering, thanks to Class B shares carrying 10 votes each against one vote for the publicly offered Class A.
Large U.S. pension funds have publicly objected, arguing the structure makes Musk effectively unfireable. For anyone buying in, the bet is not just on rockets, satellites or AI. It is in one man's control of all three.
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