See Elon Musk at Nasdaq for market open as SpaceX goes public

June 12, 2026, 1:48 p.m. ETElon Musk opened the Nasdaq on Friday, June 12, signaling the availability of shares in his commercial rocket company SpaceX.The SpaceX initial public offering became the biggest IPO ever. It also made Musk, who also co-founded and leads Tesla, Neuralink and The Boring Company, the world's first trillionaire.Musk, who also owns the social media platform X as part of SpaceX, has said he wants the company to launch up to 1 million AI satellites into space to operate orbital data centers. SpaceX also includes the Starlink internet service.Founded in 2002, SpaceX seemed like a long shot, Musk said speaking Friday morning via video link connecting SpaceX headquarters to the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. He thought the company was "going to fail."Regardless, Musk said the company's mission was important and different from competing space companies including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin."They were simply not pursuing the technology that's necessary to make life multi-planetary, to make 'Star Trek,' to make the exciting science fiction futures that we've read about real," Musk said. "That's what SpaceX is all about … to take the fiction out of science fiction."Musk has announced plans for SpaceX to build a city on the moon as part of its goal to colonize Mars.Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.