New York, June 13, 2026, 09:02 ET
- SpaceX sold 555.6 million Class A shares at $135 each. The deal raised around $75 billion, making it the biggest IPO ever.
- SPCX finished its debut session at $160.95, a 19% gain. The stock traded up to $176.45 at its intraday peak.
- SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen is set to hold roughly $1.4 billion after the IPO, an amount that throws uncommon focus on the finance chief.
SpaceX’s huge IPO is putting focus on CFO Bret Johnsen instead of Elon Musk after the company hit public markets. SpaceX priced 555,555,555 Class A shares at $135 apiece and started trading on Nasdaq Friday with the symbol SPCX. Underwriters got a 30-day window to buy up to 83,333,333 more shares at the IPO price.
SPCX finished Friday at $160.95, up 19% from its IPO price. Shares opened at $150 and topped $176 during the session. The pop took SpaceX’s value over $2 trillion, putting the listing among the year’s biggest market debuts.
Johnsen, SpaceX’s CFO since 2011, is among the top individual beneficiaries of the IPO. Business Insider, using S-1 data and the debut share price, put his stake near $1.4 billion. Fortune called him the quiet architect behind the biggest IPO ever.
Johnsen is pitching investors on SpaceX’s edge in launching, saying the company can grow Starlink, direct-to-cell, and future orbital computing using lower-cost space access. In a roadshow interview with investor Gavin Baker filed with the SEC, Johnsen said, “I tell people it’s hard to be a space company if you do not have assured access to space,” and called Starship’s fast reusability “the holy grail of rocketry.” SEC
Johnsen said Starlink has topped 10 million customers in more than 160 countries and SpaceX has launched over 10,000 satellites. He told Baker the company is planning first flights of direct-to-cell satellites next year and wants to start that service in 2028. According to Johnsen, orbital compute capacity could be operational in 2029 if the timeline holds.
Valuation is still the key issue for new SpaceX shareholders. Reuters said SpaceX had $18.7 billion in revenue for 2025, took a loss near $5 billion, and listed at about a 94 times revenue multiple for its IPO. Morningstar’s analysts pegged fair value nearer $780 billion earlier this month. Nancy Tengler, Laffer Tengler Investments CEO and CIO, told Reuters: “This is not a name you’re buying based on fundamentals.” Virginia Business
Johnsen faces a different set of challenges than most new public-company CFOs. Now he has to lay out a business that covers satellite launches, broadband, defense contracts, AI infrastructure, and plans for deep space. “Most IPO CFOs have to clean up the accounting, tighten controls, and sell the story of the firm,” Columbia Business School’s Shivaram Rajgopal told Fortune, but Johnsen also needs to convince investors to accept a controlled company at what Rajgopal called an “astronomical valuation.” Fortune
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