AI Summary
5 min readSpaceX IPO: The Biggest Public Debut in History
SpaceX went public Friday at $135 per share, opened at $150, and by late morning was trading around $172 — a roughly 24% pop that gave the company a market capitalization of about $2.3 trillion. The IPO was the largest in history, and the stock held remarkably steady throughout the morning, which the hosts interpreted as a sign of a well-managed offering. "Bill Gurley doesn't want a crazy pop on day one," one host noted. "Ten, twenty, thirty percent range for something this big — that just feels like everything came together properly."
Gwynne Shotwell's Moment
The episode opened with a clip from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell's speech at the Nasdaq, where she celebrated the company's 24-year journey from a startup that "everyone said could never get to orbit" to a public company valued in the trillions. She highlighted the company's milestones: the first private liquid fuel rocket to orbit in 2008, Falcon 9 reaching the space station, and the recent acquisition of xAI, which gave SpaceX "the largest coherent gigawatt class compute on the planet."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:02) **Show Open & SpaceX IPO Price Check** - Hosts welcome the audience and immediately check the SpaceX IPO price, noting it opened at $150 vs a $135 IPO price and is currently trading around $172.
- 2 (07:05) **Gwynne Shotwell's IPO Day Speech** - The hosts play a clip of SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell addressing employees on the NYSE floor, celebrating the company's history and the IPO.
- 3 (11:35) **Profile of Gwynne Shotwell: The Steady Hand** - The hosts discuss Shotwell's background, her early hesitation to join SpaceX, and her critical role as a stabilizing force alongside Elon Musk.
- 4 (21:10) **Elon Musk's 2004 Senate Testimony** - The hosts recount a Wall Street Journal story about a young Elon Musk testifying before the Senate, arguing for open competition in the space industry.
- 5 (27:03) **Mistral AI's Massive Fundraise** - The hosts briefly note a news item about French AI company Mistral AI exploring a €3 billion raise at a €20 billion valuation, prompting lighthearted jokes about France.
- 6 (28:06) **Debating the SpaceX Valuation** - The hosts read from a Financial Times column by Stuart Kirk that is highly skeptical of the valuation, calling it "cheap on a price to cosmos ratio."
- 7 (35:13) **Founders Fund & The Best Venture Investment Ever** - The hosts discuss Founders Fund's early investment in SpaceX, calling it potentially the best venture investment of all time.
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Show Notes
- (00:34) - SpaceX IPO Coverage
- (21:25) - Vindication for Elon Musk
- (35:31) - SpaceX IPO 𝕏 Timeline Reactions
- (01:03:38) - Oasis Faces LMNT Lawsuit
- (01:20:16) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions
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