# SpaceX Is Now a Public Stock: What SPCX, Starlink and Starship Mean for Investors
Elon Musk's rocket company was, for years, the ultimate private company that regular investors could only dream of owning. That ended in June 2026, when SpaceX (SPCX) listed on the Nasdaq in one of the biggest IPOs ever. Now that it trades publicly, the question is simple: what are you actually buying?
How Did the SpaceX IPO Go?
SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share, selling roughly 555 million Class A shares and raising about $75 billion at a valuation near $1.75 trillion, an enormous debut. The stock opened at $150 and closed its first day around $161, a 19% pop that briefly valued the company above $2 trillion, in the same league as Tesla.
Since then, reality has set in. As of early September 2026, SPCX trades in the $148 to $153 range, below its first-day close. That is a common pattern for hyped mega-IPOs: an explosive debut, followed by a period of digestion as the market settles on a fair price.
Starlink: The Profit Engine
Here is the most important thing to understand about SpaceX as an investment: Starlink is the business that makes money. The satellite internet network is SpaceX's only consistent source of profit, and it is growing fast, more than 10 million subscribers as of early 2026, roughly double its total from the end of 2024.
Starlink turns rockets into recurring revenue. And the next phase is already underway: SpaceX plans to begin deploying its more powerful Starlink V3 satellites in the back half of 2026, which should increase capacity and speeds. For investors, Starlink is the closest thing SpaceX has to a predictable, subscription-style cash machine.
Starship: The Expensive, High-Stakes Bet
The other half of the story is Starship, the massive, fully reusable rocket meant to slash the cost of reaching orbit and, eventually, carry humans to Mars. It is the moonshot that gives SpaceX its trillion-dollar imagination.
It is also a money pit, by design. SpaceX spent roughly $3 billion on Starship research and development in 2025 alone. The program completed its 12th test flight in May 2026 and is working toward a 13th. Every successful flight de-risks the future; every failure is a costly reminder that this is genuinely hard.
What Kind of Stock Is SPCX?
Buying SpaceX means owning a profitable, fast-growing internet business (Starlink) bolted onto an extremely expensive, world-changing rocket program (Starship), all wrapped in Elon Musk's ambition. It is part cash flow, part venture bet.
As for Musk himself, when SPCX began trading he briefly became the world's first trillionaire on paper. His net worth has since come back to earth somewhat, around $750 billion, as the stock cooled.
Want to compare SpaceX with other space and satellite plays? See our best space stocks guide and screen the sector with our Stock Screener.
The Bottom Line: A Once-Private Giant, Now Within Reach
SpaceX going public is a landmark: the most valuable private company in the world is now something you can buy in a brokerage account. But a huge valuation means huge expectations, and the post-IPO cooldown shows the market is still figuring out what it is worth.
Our take: A rare asset at a rich price. SpaceX is a genuinely unique business with a real profit engine in Starlink and enormous optionality in Starship. But near a $1.75 trillion valuation, a lot of future success is already priced in, and Starship remains capital-hungry and risky. For long-term believers, it is a fascinating core holding; for everyone else, patience and a small position beat chasing the story. Key risk to watch: Starship setbacks or slowing Starlink growth, either of which would undercut a valuation built on big expectations.---
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Always do your own research before investing.
