How Elon Musk rewrote SpaceX’s story—and turned it into the greatest IPO debut in history

It’s hard to believe that only a few months ago, Space X was primarily an enterprise that manufactured rockets, managed launches, and deployed a satellite constellation for servicing mobile phone and broadband purveyors. But in February, Elon Musk folded x AI, another arm of his empire, into Space X, and his entire narrative about the prime force for driving the enterprise’s rise took a pivot heard round the world. Suddenly, Musk was overwhelmingly wagering Space X’s future not on its two legacy franchises, but on AI. The IPO on June 12 was a crucial test of whether the world would buy his new, epic vision, or not. A big jump over the offer price of $135 would show a ringing endorsement, while a dive would signal that folks and funds just weren’t buying Musk’s futuristic promises for the likes of super-low-cost orbital data centers powered by the sun. Around noon, we got the answer: SpaceX shares shot higher at the open, and closed at $160. a 19% jump. By day’s end the market cap notched an incredible $2.2. trillion, easily becoming the biggest U.S. IPO of all time, easily eclipsing number two Alibaba (2014) by ten-fold. Hence, investors are proving true believers, they’re all-in on Musk promises not only that AI will prove an absolutely colossal market, but effectively that he’ll capture a lot more of it than a roster of mega-rivals encompassing Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and sundry hustling challengers. A key chart in the SpaceX prospectus shows just how heavily Musk’s counting on AI versus his other two businesses. He forecasts a future total addressable market for the enterprise of $28.5 trillion, and that of that total, AI will account for $26.5 trillion or 93%. That’s almost 14 times the combined $2.0 trillion for its satellite and rocket sides. The implication: The rocket and Starlink mobile and broadband sectors will grow fast, but AI will supply the moonshot. Indeed, the Space segment generated just $4.