SpaceX (SPCX) -- Record $85.7B IPO, Up 58% in Four Sessions

Priced at $135, opened at $161, and now up roughly 58% over its first four trading sessions, with a market cap that has overtaken Tesla's. Days after listing, SpaceX is already deploying its new currency on a $60B all-stock bid for Cursor.

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Trace Cohen
Early-stage VC & angel ยท Founder, New York Venture Partners
June 18, 2026
1 min read
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR VCs & FOUNDERS
1

This isn't just an IPO -- it's the reopening of the late-stage liquidity market that's been frozen since 2022

2

SpaceX's market cap overtaking Tesla's reframes Musk's empire and fuels SpaceX-Tesla merger speculation

3

Every late-stage VC fund can now point to SpaceX as proof that the exit window is open for their LPs

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The VC Read ยท Trace's TakeTrace Cohen

Watch the secondary market, not the ticker. Pre-IPO SpaceX shares traded at 20-30% discounts to last-round pricing through 2023-24; they're now at premiums, and the cap just blew past Tesla's. That repricing -- not the day-one print -- is what tells every LP sitting on illiquid AI and space positions that the bid is back. The Cursor deal shows the next phase: newly public mega-caps spending stock on M&A. The merger chatter is noise for now, but the liquidity signal is real.

SpaceX began trading under the ticker SPCX on June 12 at $161 per share, well above its $135 IPO price, and has since climbed roughly 58% over its first four trading sessions -- pushing its market capitalization past Tesla's and fueling speculation about an eventual combination of Musk's two flagship companies. Total capital raised stands at $85.7 billion, making it the largest IPO in history by a wide margin.

The market mechanics tell a story beyond the ticker. SpaceX priced conservatively at $135 despite demand that could have supported more, a deliberate strategy to ensure a strong first-day pop. The greenshoe was exercised, and the allocation process reportedly prioritized long-only institutional investors over hedge funds -- a signal SpaceX wanted a stable shareholder base. The dual-class structure keeps Musk in voting control regardless of how shares trade.

โ€œTotal capital raised stands at $85.7 billion, making it the largest IPO in history by a wide margin.โ€

Within days of listing, SpaceX put its new currency to work, agreeing to acquire Cursor-maker Anysphere in a roughly $60 billion all-stock deal. That move underlines the bigger story: SpaceX is the dam breaking. The late-stage liquidity market has been effectively frozen since 2022, and SpaceX just proved that mega-cap tech IPOs can price above private marks, trade up sharply, and immediately fund stock-financed M&A.

The pipeline is moving fast now. Klarna priced this week, EigenQ is going public via SPAC, and Anthropic and OpenAI have both filed confidentially. If SpaceX sustains these levels through Q3, 2026 could rival or surpass 2021 as the largest IPO year ever -- with the critical difference that these companies have real revenue and, in many cases, actual profits.

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Originally reported by Los Angeles Times. Analysis and editorial commentary by Value Add Pulse.

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