SpaceX IPO Draws More Than $70 Billion in Retail Demand, Leaving Most Investors Shut Out

More than $70 billion in demand: retail investors rushed into SpaceX’s initial public offering, Shira Reiter, 20 minutes ago, 4:10 p.m. SpaceX’s initial public offering is entering its final stretch, with strong demand from retail investors. Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the offering drew more than $70 billion in demand from private investors. SpaceX is raising $75 billion in the IPO, which values the company at $1.8 trillion and is expected to be the largest fundraising ever. The terms of the offering include a price of $135 per share and 555.6 million shares. Bloomberg also wrote that, according to the same sources, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public, retail investors are expected to receive an allocation of at least 20% of the shares available. At a fundraising size of $75 billion, the largest ever if completed, such an allocation would mean shares worth at least $15 billion for private investors, far below demand of more than $70 billion. According to Bloomberg’s calculations, most of the demand from private investors will go unmet. The fact that many of Elon Musk’s fans may be left without shares in the offering could increase demand for the stock when trading begins, which is expected tomorrow. The banks were expected to stop accepting orders from institutional investors yesterday, ahead of the price being set later today and trading beginning tomorrow, Friday. If completed, the offering will be the largest ever, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s debut listing, which raised $29.4 billion in 2019. According to Bloomberg, it could also pave the way for additional giant offerings by companies whose artificial intelligence models compete with those of SpaceX. The SpaceX offering is being led by a group of more than 20 banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase. Continued