SpaceX IPO closes 19% and delivers world’s first trillionaire

SpaceX broke ground on its first day as a public company, immediately jumping to $150 a share after it began trading on the Nasdaq, roughly 11% higher than the $135 figure it formally priced its initial public offering on Thursday.

The stock price hit $176 at midday, pushing the company’s market cap to nearly $2.3 trillion, before eventually settling 19% higher at $160.95 as markets closed.

The stock’s pop is no surprise. The company’s IPO was four times oversubscribed, according to Bloomberg, meaning many institutional investors did not receive allocations and would likely buy shares on the open market.

Demand for SpaceX is also a function of its small float, with only about 4% of shares available for public trading, with investors and early employees holding the rest. SpaceX has also successfully lobbied a number of indices (such as the Nasdaq 100) to change their listing rules. The company will now join those indexes within days, not months, increasing demand for SpaceX shares before other large institutions and funds start buying them automatically.

Robinhood said it saw “record” traffic on its trading platform on Friday in the hours after SpaceX’s historic debut on the public markets.

The debut is also one of the biggest windfalls in the history of venture capital. Founders Fund, which has invested $600 million in the company and owns a 3% stake, has revenues of more than $50 billion at the IPO price of $135, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz’s stake is worth more than $10 billion, and Sequoia’s stake is valued at more than $20 billion.

Its debut at $150 made its founder Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The New York Times reported that about 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees will become millionaires, while about 400 will become millionaires.

The original version of this article was published at 11 a.m. ET. The article has been updated with a new stock price and other information.