NEW YORK: SpaceX shares shot 20 per cent higher on Monday as the company said it had raised a record-breaking $85.7 billion, cementing its stellar debut on Wall Street.
The stock climbed 19.7 per cent in Monday trading to $192.8, extending Friday’s 19 per cent gain after shares first began trading on the Nasdaq at $135.
The two-day surge sent the company’s market value to more than $2.5 trillion, putting it among the six largest companies in the world.
Demand for SpaceX’s shares was so strong that the banks running the sale exercised a so-called greenshoe option, selling extra shares when investors wanted more than planned.
SpaceX ended up selling nearly 639 million shares, including more than 83 million extra ones, lifting the total raised to $85.7 billion beyond the originally planned $75 billion.
Co-founded by Elon Musk in 2002, the rocket startup has since expanded into a major satellite operator and folded in his artificial intelligence company, xAI, which includes the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The towering valuation rests heavily on the belief that Musk will deliver on promises worthy of science fiction, including putting humans on Mars and data centres in space using as-yet unproven technology.
