The company, which also owns the X social media network, will begin trading Friday at a valuation of $1.77 trillion. The initial public offering, which could be a referendum on Musk himself, is also going to be the latest major test of red-hot demand for the artificial intelligence boom.
It could also test the mechanics of the market itself. When Facebook’s massive IPO debuted on the Nasdaq exchange in 2012, technical glitches delayed its opening. SpaceX will also trade on the Nasdaq and is set to be three times larger than the prior largest IPO on record.