SpaceX completed the largest IPO in Nasdaq history, with Musk connecting remotely from Starbase in Texas and Gwynne Shotwell ringing the bell in New York. Their remarks formed an intriguing contrast: Musk spoke of Mars, civilization, and humanity’s future—aiming to make humanity a multiplanetary species—while Shotwell detailed 24 years of concrete achievements, including the number of rockets launched, satellites deployed, and successful recoveries accomplished. Starting from a small warehouse in California, Musk once believed the chance of success was less than 10%. On the day of the IPO, Musk’s net worth surpassed $1.2 trillion, making him the first trillionaire in human history. His wealth doubled within a year, nearly exceeding the combined fortunes of the next several richest individuals. The market is closely watching the possibility of a merger between SpaceX and Tesla, which, if realized, would create a super-entity spanning rockets, satellites, electric vehicles, AI, and robotics.
Author and source: Quantum Bit
SpaceX has gone public, and the entire tech community is sending congratulations.
Goldman Sachs CEO, JPMorgan Chase CEO, a16z partner Katherine Boyle, former Tesla AI director and current Anthropic researcher Karpathy... all took to posting.
Everyone feels the same as Kapsi: excited and amazed.
But more than these celebrations and exclamations, what impressed me most were the two videos that circulated before the bell-ringing.
A clip of Musk himself, wearing a leather jacket at Starbase in Texas(note: this will be tested later)remote connection.
Another segment features Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, standing on the Nasdaq trading floor in New York.
Viewed together, the two statements form a perfect control group.
Elon Musk talks about Mars, civilization, and the future of humanity. He says the purpose of SpaceX is to make humanity a multiplanetary species.
Gwen talks about something else: over 24 years, how many rockets they launched, how many satellites they put into orbit, how many recoveries they completed, and how many people participated in this long-term engineering endeavor.
One is talking about the destination, the other about the journey.
In a way, this is also a microcosm of SpaceX’s past 24 years.
A company that started from a warehouse… Let me tell you something interesting.
In 2010, when Tesla went public, Musk specifically flew to New York to ring the bell.
But when it came to SpaceX, despite the largest IPO in history, he didn’t go—
He stayed at Starbase in Texas, standing with SpaceX employees, and connected remotely to New York(Gwen rang the bell for him in New York).
But it is precisely this absence that makes his presence feel even stronger:
The world’s eyes are on Nasdaq, but he stands at the launch site.
The implication is clear: New York handles listings, Texas handles rocket launches.
Even the set design seems like a pre-planned metaphor: the large screen behind Musk displays Mars, while the one behind Gwen shows the lunar surface.
One looks toward the finish line, the other focuses on the next stop.
And this difference was soon reflected in their next statements.
Musk spoke for about five minutes total, but the first 30 seconds were all devoted to applause and cheers.
Under this atmosphere, the cheerful boy Musk immediately thanked Gwen(saying many thanks in a row):
Gwynne Shotwell is an incredible partner and one of the earliest people to join the company.
Then, changing the subject, he began to recall the early days.
It’s hard to believe that a small company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo(a small city in southwestern California)is now going public with the largest IPO in history.
Well, let me tell you, if someone had told me back then that all of this would happen, I would have thought: Dude, you must be *high, because that company was almost certainly going to fail—put more plainly, I originally thought SpaceX’s chances of success were less than 10%.
What I originally told everyone was: We’re likely to fail, but we should try. Because if no new company enters the space industry, humanity will never become a true spacefaring civilization.
Then he started doing what he does best—making empty promises.
Other space companies build great rockets, but they aren’t pursuing the technologies needed to make humanity a multiplanetary species. What SpaceX is doing is removing the word “fiction” from science fiction and turning those exciting futures into reality.
Not just a few astronauts. I’m talking to you—anyone, whoever you are, watching this right now. SpaceX is taking you to the Moon, to Mars, and ultimately beyond.
No sooner had the words been spoken than the audience burst into applause once again.
Seeing this, the inspired Old Ma added one last remark very much in the style of Musk:
There will always be problems on Earth, things we want to solve—and of course, we should solve them. But the world also needs things that excite you, that make you wake up in the morning eager to see what happens next. That’s the future SpaceX is bringing you.
Alright, the pie-in-the-sky pitch is over—perfect score (doge).
Speaking of Gwen, Musk also specifically shared Gwen's video.
If Musk is giving a TED talk, then Gwen is seriously delivering an annual review.
Her first words set the tone:
Today, we make history again — and we have a history of making history.（今天我们又创造了历史，而我们本身就有创造历史的历史。）
Then she added a line that sent the entire audience into a frenzy:
Just before market open this morning, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket, placing Starlink satellites into orbit.What kind of company launches a rocket on the same day it goes public? SpaceX does..
Next, she began checking off each item one by one, pulling out SpaceX’s milestones for 2024:
- In 2008, six weeks after the third launch failure, SpaceX became the first private company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit. Everyone said we couldn’t make it into orbit. Check.
- Two years later, Falcon 9 reached orbit. They said you couldn’t build a real rocket. Check.
- Send astronauts to the space station. They said you could never do it. Check.
- Last year, they completed 165 launches. They said you couldn’t mass-produce them. Check.
- Built the Starship rocket, large enough to carry humans to the Moon and Mars. They said you couldn’t build something this big. We built it, launched it, and this year we’re going to reach orbit and recover the second stage. Check.
A series of checks sent Wall Street into a frenzy.
Then she said something even more moving:
We have approximately 22,000 people. I’m especially proud that more than half of our employees additionally purchased company shares in this IPO, totaling nearly $1 billion.
A true thank you to all of you—for staying strong, standing tall in the face of doubters, and creating historic achievements every day, every week.
We also thank the families behind us—partners, children, siblings, and parents—who have endured late-night work sessions, launch failures, AI compute outages, and all the challenges of this extremely difficult industry. Thank you.
What can you say after listening? It’s really quite spicy.(Unfamiliar with Quantum Position’s previous article about Gwen).
While Musk stood on stage saying he would take you to Mars, it was Gwen who ensured the rocket could actually fly; while Musk estimated SpaceX’s success probability at less than 10%, it was Gwen who, over the past 24 years, gradually moved that probability to 100%.
And not a single word in her speech was about herself—every word was about you, the team, and the family.
And finally, she used the following words to shift the spotlight to Musk in Texas:
Let me introduce you to my boss for 2024, the chairman, CEO, and chief designer of this company, Elon Musk.
Again. Task completed, returning the spotlight, stepping back into the background.
Just like the past 24 years.
Elon Musk becomes the first trillionaire in human history, just after Gwen says, “Let me introduce my boss, Elon Musk,” a new historical record is set.
On the day SpaceX goes public, Musk becomes the first person in human history to reach a net worth of over $1 trillion.
After the first day's close, according to calculations by multiple media outlets based on ownership stakes and closing prices, Musk's combined holdings in SpaceX and Tesla amount to approximately $1.2 trillion.
What does this number mean?
If you spent $1 million per day, it would last for 3,288 years (you’d never run out in a thousand lifetimes…).
And if you look back at Musk's wealth trajectory, you'll be stunned by the speed at which his net worth has grown.
In 2012, Musk was first listed by Forbes as a billionaire with a net worth of $2.4 billion, which rose to $20 billion by 2019.
After Tesla's stock split in 2020, its value surged dramatically, surpassing $100 billion.
In the summer of 2024, he, Bezos, and Arnault took turns being the world's richest person, each with a net worth of around $200 billion.
By December 2025, the anticipated SpaceX IPO drove valuations higher, making him the first person in human history to reach a net worth of over $600 billion.
And now, this number has reached $1.2 trillion.
In just one year, wealth doubled again.
When calculated, his personal wealth now nearly exceeds the combined total of the next three to five richest people. No wonder netizens joke:
Old Ma makes other billionaires look like they're working 9-to-5.
However, let’s put things into perspective—over 90% of this $1.2 trillion consists of locked equity.
His SpaceX shares have a 366-day lock-up period, twice as long as the standard 180 days. Morningstar analysts even believe SpaceX’s fair valuation is only $780 billion, less than half of its IPO valuation.
So a more accurate term would be: trillionaire on paper.
But whether it’s on paper or not doesn’t matter anymore, since this number has already been written into history.
And just to add, Ma's trillion is likely just the beginning.
On the day of the listing, a bigger story began to emerge: Could SpaceX and Tesla potentially merge?
The clues seen so far are already more than one.
A message from Gwen. When asked about the possibility of a merger in her CNBC interview, she replied with a telling remark:
might make Elon's life a little easier.
This might be speculation coming from someone else, but coming from the president of SpaceX, it carries a completely different weight.
Second, from SpaceX's S-1 filing. Prior to its IPO, SpaceX amended its S-1 filing, adding a sentence to the risk factors section:
We may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.（我们可能在未来交易中大量增发股票）
The outside world generally believes that this warning does not seem to be prepared for the acquisition of a small company.
The counterparty that could enable SpaceX to issue a large number of additional shares is too clearly identifiable.
Another one: Musk has always been keen on piecing together his business empire into a unified whole.
In 2025, xAI fully acquired X (formerly Twitter); in early 2026, SpaceX acquired xAI.
Over a year, two major integrations.
If you view Musk’s business empire as a puzzle, the pieces of social media, AI, and spaceflight have already been put together.
And the remaining, most critical, and largest piece—Tesla—also cannot be ruled out from being included in the same map.
If a merger truly takes place, it would mean the creation of an unprecedented super-entity:
Rockets, satellite internet, electric vehicles, autonomous driving, AI large models, humanoid robots, social media, space-based data centers—
From the ground to space, from hardware to software, all under one person’s control.
Elon, your life is still too extraordinary.
One More Thing: Let’s talk about fashion (just kidding).
Did you notice? This time, Musk wore a leather jacket in the style of Huang at the SpaceX bell-ringing ceremony.(Not the Nasdaq version)
Although it's unclear whether Old Ma intended it (given how tempting Old Huang's trillion-dollar empire is), if you list the key listing moments he has been involved in and that have public video records, you'll find:
His style of dress seems to subtly shift in stages.
It dates back to 2002, when PayPal went public and Musk was 30 years old.
In those days, his standard public appearance was a dark suit, light-colored shirt, and tie—clearly the look of a typical Wall Street young professional.
However, many people don’t know that he was no longer the CEO of PayPal at the time（Peter Thiel had succeeded him in 2000）, but he remained the largest shareholder.
At that time, Musk dressed like a young entrepreneur desperately trying to gain recognition from the capital markets.
Then in 2010, Tesla went public.
Elon Musk specifically flew to New York and took a photo standing with his arms crossed in front of the Nasdaq billboard.
Wearing a blue-gray plaid blazer, a plaid shirt, and no tie—
No longer a Wall Street staple, but the core was still a suit, and the person still faithfully flew to New York.
By 2026, SpaceX will go public, and this time it’s the most interesting.
Clothing? A black leather jacket.
No suit, no tie, and not even going to New York.
Clearly, at PayPal’s IPO, Musk dressed like someone seeking Wall Street’s approval; at Tesla’s IPO, under the circumstances at the time, he dressed like someone challenging Wall Street; by SpaceX’s IPO, he had stopped bothering to change clothes for Wall Street.
Clothing is like life, offering a glimpse into Musk’s world.
Oh, by the way, there’s another interesting detail this time: SpaceX employees collectively wore green shoes into the trading floor.
Why is it called the greenshoe?
Because in IPO terminology, there is a specific term called the greenshoe (greenshoe mechanism)—
The underwriter's greenshoe option allows for additional share issuance after the listing.
In simple terms, on the listing day, if there are too many buyers, the underwriters can sell additional inventory to prevent the market from being overwhelmed and help stabilize the price.
Elon Musk also retweeted this green shoe photo and added two emojis.
When it comes to real money, let the green dots be green (just kidding—over there, green means up and red means down~).