SpaceX has completed what CNBC called a "blockbuster" and "historic" initial public offering, with the company seeking a valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion — a figure that has set off a chain reaction across markets, rewarded early backers with some of the largest paper gains in venture capital history, and forced institutional investors to grapple with a deal unlike anything they've seen in decades.
In the run-up to Friday's listing, traders scrambled for any indirect exposure they could find. According to CNBC, options volume surged in so-called "proxy stocks" — shares in companies with SpaceX stakes or adjacent businesses. EchoStar, a Colorado-based networking company that owns an estimated 3% of SpaceX, was one name seeing heavy activity. "There's a ton of short-dated call buying in these names as a way to get long SpaceX," Danny Kirsch, head of options trading at Piper Sandler, told CNBC. Coinbase also offered perpetual futures on pre-IPO SpaceX shares. Once the real listing arrived, those proxies unwound sharply.
Not every institution rushed in. North Carolina's state treasurer passed on SpaceX entirely, citing valuation concerns, while directing investments toward AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic, according to CNBC.
Hedging the position has proven equally vexing. Millbank Dartmoor Portsmouth CIO Dennis Davitt told CNBC he hasn't seen anything like it since 2004, quipping about the difficulty of shorting a company whose closest peer is a government agency: "What are you going to do, short NASA?"
Retail investors received a limited slice — SpaceX cut their allocation to the low 20% range, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by CNBC. Google, a long-time partner, was among those celebrating the debut, underscoring how deeply the company is woven into the broader tech ecosystem.
The IPO marks a defining moment for private-market investing: when the most anticipated listing in years finally arrives, the creative workarounds investors built to reach it can evaporate overnight.