SpaceX goes public and is now worth trillions. What happens now?
6/12/20269 min
SpaceX is now publicly traded, and it’s leaning heavily into space and AI. What does that mean for us humans here on earth?
Today, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX had a banner day in the stock market. The company is now valued at more than $2 trillion.
That is, after an already record-breaking initial public offering, or IPO.
That historic IPO is likely to make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
And while SpaceX isn't profitable yet, investors have big expectations for the company’s ambitions in space and artificial intelligence.
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This episode was produced by Alejandra Marquez Janse, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane and Becky Brown.
It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Patrick Jarenwattananon.
Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMary Louise Kelly· Host0:01
It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, SpaceX debuts on the stock market. [bell ringing] That's the NASDAQ opening bell Friday morning. It was a big day for the tech market and SpaceX, and for regular investors who can now buy the company shares. That is because the SpaceX IPO, initial public offering, shattered records valued at $75 billion, and that was before today's trading started.
Elon Musk· Soundbite0:34
And let me tell you, if, uh, people had told me this was the, gonna happen- [laughs] ... I was like, "Man, you must be smoking some really good crack- [laughs] ... 'cause I think this company's gonna fail."
Mary Louise Kelly· Host0:45
[laughs] Watching the opening bell from Starbase in Texas was CEO Elon Musk.
Elon Musk· Soundbite0:51
Um, in fact, I told people this. I said, "Look, we're probably gonna fail, but, you know, we should give it a try because if we don't, uh, if it, if there's not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space-faring civilization."
Mary Louise Kelly· Host1:04
That historic IPO is likely to make Musk the world's first trillionaire. And while SpaceX is not profitable yet, investors have big expectations for the company in space and artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk· Soundbite1:18
You know, while the, the other aerospace companies, they build good rockets and everything, they, they were simply not pursuing the technology that's necessary to make life multi-planetary, uh, to,