CNBC’s Leslie Picker walked viewers through the mechanics of last week’s blockbuster listing on June 15. She framed SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) as more than the biggest IPO ever priced. “Friday’s debut went off really smoothly. There were no technology glitches in the 19% day one gain meant that those who received allocation generated a pretty good return, but the company didn’t leave too much on the table, either,” Picker said on air. That balance, a clean debut plus a fair split between issuer and buyer, is what bankers prepping the next wave of megacap deals are studying closely.
The numbers behind the debut
SpaceX opened trading on Friday and climbed again on Monday. Shares were quoted at $183.90 intraday Monday, up 14.26% from the $160.95 close on June 12. The company’s market capitalization sits near $2.52 trillion, making it instantly one of the largest listings on any U.S. exchange.
Picker emphasized the retail story. “Friday saw the highest retail order activity for an IPO auction ever,” she noted, citing Citadel Securities data. The book showed about 20% retail participation, and an estimated 30% of the float, roughly $75 billion, is expected to land with passive indexes within two weeks under fast-tracking rules.
Elon Musk added fuel by suggesting SpaceX could reach roughly $1 trillion in revenue by 2030. That would triple bankers’ projections and 53 times last year’s revenue.
How the space-sector peer traded through the week
One signal worth flagging for readers eyeing space-sector spillover: Firefly Aerospace (NASDAQ: FLY | FLY Price Prediction) did not catch a SpaceX bid. Firefly fell 11.72% in the week into June 12, closing at $31.87 before recovering to $33.40 Monday. The company posted Q1 FY26 revenue of $80.88 million, up 44.8% year over year. They also guided FY26 revenue to $420 million to $450 million, with a $1.4 billion backlog.
The megacap benchmark, and a small-cap aside
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) provides the megacap reference point. Shares closed at $369.57 Monday, with a one-year return of 105.3%. Q1 FY26 revenue came in at $109.90 billion, up 21.8% year over year, with Google Cloud at $20.03 billion (+63%) and a cloud backlog over $460 billion. Alphabet also guided 2026 capex to $175 billion to $185 billion. That’s the kind of spend that gives AI-adjacent issuers like OpenAI and Anthropic a public-market comp for infrastructure-heavy business models.
Dominari Holdings (NASDAQ: DOMH), a small-cap underwriter that has ridden the IPO cycle, traded up 5.06% Monday to $3.32. The firm reported FY25 revenue of $123.10 million (+487% YoY), driven by $79.03 million in underwriting services, per its most recent SEC filing.
What to watch into the Anthropic and OpenAI windows
Picker connected the dots to the next two deals on the runway. “SpaceX’s smooth debut may pave the way for two other megacap AI companies that have each filed confidentially. Anthropic and OpenAI sources I spoke with think it’s possible we could see a repeat of that fixed price that they marketed versus a range,” she said.
The risk she flagged is sequencing. “Perhaps the biggest question for the future megacap IPOs as it pertains to space is whether it can maintain these levels, because if it dips substantially before they attempt to go public, investors may not be as keen to seek allocations in companies like Anthropic and OpenAI,” Picker added. With SPCX trading only two sessions, the template is still being written. Investors waiting on AI listings should keep an eye on SpaceX’s post-lockup price action and on whether the retail share of the order book holds up when the next book opens.
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