SpaceX launched its 1,500th Starlink satellite of 2026 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The milestone comes right as the company pulls off a historic Wall Street debut. On The Journal., reporter Alex Ossola announced that the company "sold the more than five hundred fifty-five million shares in its IPO at a hundred thirty-five dollars a piece, giving it a valuation around one point seven seven trillion dollars." On The Prof G Pod, co-host George Hahn noted that raising $75 billion officially makes this "the largest IPO in history".
The sheer scale of the listing has triggered what Kevin Roose of Hard Fork calls a "hot IPO summer", causing some investors to dump other tech names to free up cash. On My First Million, Shaan Puri joked that the "SpaceX IPO is expected to create over four thousand new millionaires, including some cafeteria workers".
But not everyone is buying the hype. On Pivot, Scott Galloway warned that the stock "will be all downhill from there", calling the company "a cult, not a company" that is dangerously overvalued. On The Bulwark Podcast, Jason Calacanis agreed that SpaceX is "essentially valued like a VC business", meaning public markets might have a rough ride ahead.
Beyond the financial frenzy, the company still has to execute on its actual space missions. On the Global News Podcast, reporter Carter Sherman detailed the looming pressure on the Artemis 3 mission, which plans to have NASA's Orion spacecraft "dock with two prototype lunar landers made by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and then Elon Musk's SpaceX." Despite industry-wide delays, SpaceX spokespeople are maintaining a brave face, telling the public, "Don't worry, we'll be ready."