SpaceX is now a public company valued for its AI potential, so what comes next?

SpaceX began trading on the NASDAQ exchange Friday at $135 a share, giving the company a valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion in the largest initial public offering in history [1][2]. The stock closed at $160.95, a gain of more than 19 percent on its first day [1]. The listing comes nearly a quarter-century after Elon Musk founded the company in 2002 with the stated goal of reducing space launch costs and eventually establishing a colony on Mars [2][7]. SpaceX has since become the world's most active launch provider, with its Falcon 9 rockets launching an average of three times per week and having landed and flown again nearly 650 times as of May 2026 [2]. The company also operates the Starlink satellite internet constellation, which had more than 12 million subscribers as of June 2026 and generated $11.4 billion in revenue in 2025 [6]. Musk's personal stake in the company was valued at more than $700 billion by the close of trading, making him the world's first trillionaire [1][3]. Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.1 trillion as of June 2026 [3]. Thousands of current and former SpaceX employees also saw windfalls from the company's stock options plan [1]. The IPO filing revealed that SpaceX views its core value as lying not in rocket launches or satellite internet, but in artificial intelligence services delivered from space for enterprise applications. The company's S-1 document characterized its space-enabled solutions and Starlink as comprising less than 7 percent of its total addressable market [1]. The pivot toward AI was underscored earlier in 2026 when SpaceX acquired Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI and announced a joint venture with Tesla to build a semiconductor fabrication plant called Terafab [2]. The social media platform X, which Musk acquired in 2022 for $44 billion, had already been absorbed by xAI in 2025 before both were folded into SpaceX in February 2026 [4]. SpaceX's trajectory has been marked by both technical milestones and setbacks. The company's Starship vehicle, intended as a fully reusable super heavy-lift rocket, has launched 12 times with 7 successful flights and 5 failures as of May 2026 [8]. Development has followed an iterative approach involving prototype testing, and the program has failed to meet many of its schedule goals, including the failure of four Block 2 upper stages in 2025 [8]. SpaceX has deprioritized its Mars ambitions in the near term to focus on a lunar base under NASA's Artemis program, with a crewed lunar landing scheduled for 2028 [7][8]. Musk retains complete autonomy in ownership and voting rights, but the public listing now subjects the company to significant disclosure requirements and ties its fortunes to shareholder expectations [1].