$1.77 trillion. The biggest IPO in history just happened

It finally happened.

SpaceX went public on Friday. The stock trades on the Nasdaq now, under the ticker SPCX.

And this was no normal deal. SpaceX sold about $75 billion in stock. That makes it the biggest IPO in history.

The old record? Saudi Aramco raised $35.4 billion back in 2019. SpaceX more than doubled it.

The shares priced at $135 each. That values the whole firm near $1.77 trillion.

Let me put that in plain terms. SpaceX is now worth more than all but a handful of U.S. firms.

Huge, right? But here's the part the cheers drowned out.

You don't get much for your money… not in control, anyway.

Elon Musk keeps about 85% of the votes. So buyers get a tiny slice and almost no say.

In other words, you own the ride. Musk steers it. Alone.

And the price is steep. SpaceX brought in about $18.6 billion last year. But it lost $4.9 billion running the business.

So you're paying roughly 100 times sales for a firm that loses money. That's a nosebleed price.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "But it's SpaceX." I hear you. Starlink has close to 10 million users. The rockets fly. The moat is wide.

All true. But a great firm and a great stock are not the same thing.

Pay too much and even a winner can burn you.

And most of you couldn't buy at $135 anyway. Big funds grabbed those shares. You buy in the open market, at whatever price the crowd sets.

So take a breath before you chase it.

The rocket is proven. The math is the question…

SpaceX didn't only sell stock this week. It also won big from the Pentagon. The U.S. Space Force awarded it $6.45 billion across two programs. Both feed the new Golden Dome missile-defense plan. And this is the quiet reason the IPO holds up. Last year the government paid SpaceX about $5.9 billion. That's steady, signed, multi-year cash. Rockets get the cheers. Contracts pay the bills.

Private money isn't slowing down. Vast Space just raised $250 million. Andreessen Horowitz, a top tech fund, led the round. It values Vast near $5.5 billion. The firm builds private space stations to take over from the aging ISS. NASA plans to retire that old station soon. So a race is on to own the next one. Vast wants to win it.

Here's a side effect few saw coming. A $75 billion IPO needs $75 billion of cash. Where does that cash come from? Some of it comes from selling other stocks. Analysts warned that big funds might dump winners to free up money for SpaceX. And chip stocks did slip as the deal drew near. So one listing can ripple across your whole portfolio. Big fish move the water.

Mark June 17 on your calendar.

That day, Amazon plans its biggest satellite drop yet. A rocket will carry 36 Amazon Leo satellites to orbit. Arianespace will fly them from French Guiana.

And the timing is no accident…

The FCC just hit Amazon with a deadline catch. Any satellite launched after July 30 loses its spectrum priority. So every launch before then counts double.

In other words, Amazon is in a sprint. It needs more birds up fast to hold its place against Starlink.

This June 17 batch is step one. More launches will follow all summer.

Watch the skies over Kourou.

Back to that SpaceX catch.

Musk keeps 85% of the votes. How? Through something called dual-class shares. Let me explain.

Most firms give one vote per share. Simple. Own more, decide more.

But some firms split their stock into two classes. One class carries lots of votes. The other carries few, or none.

Founders keep the strong class. The public buys the weak one.

In other words, you put in the cash… they keep the control.

SpaceX is not alone here. Google, Meta, and Snap all do the same thing. Founders like to steer without a fight.

Is that bad? Not always. A bold founder can build great things when no one second-guesses every move.

But it cuts both ways. If the boss slips up, you can't vote them out. You can only sell.

So know what you're buying. A share of the profits, yes. A share of the power, no.