When SpaceX Finally Goes Public, Wall Street Is Ready to Buy the Dream

Let's imagine it's 2025. SpaceX, valued at roughly $180 billion in its most recent private funding round, finally decides to let retail investors in. What happens next tells you everything about how we've collectively lost our minds about growth.

The company would likely price somewhere north of $120 per share. Retail traders—the same ones who made GameStop a household name—would lap it up like Elon just invented fire. Within hours, you'd see it up 15%, maybe 20%. Financial media would call it "frothy." Your coworker would ask why you didn't buy in. You'd wonder if you're stupid for not doing so.

Here's what makes this fantasy so seductive: SpaceX's fundamentals are actually legitimate. Unlike most IPO darlings, the company has real revenue (government contracts), real technology, and real ambitions that go beyond just existing. Starship is getting closer. Starlink is operational. These aren't hopes—they're facts.

But the stock price wouldn't reflect any of that. It would reflect Elon Musk's name, our collective hunger for the next moonshot investment, and the peculiar alchemy that turns private-company scarcity into public-market mania. A $300 billion valuation on day one wouldn't be based on Mars colonies or quarterly earnings. It would be based on vibes.

That's not a criticism of SpaceX. That's an observation about us: we're desperate enough for a real growth story that we'll overpay for one the moment it becomes available. The company doesn't even need to go public. We're already doing the heavy lifting of convincing ourselves it's worth whatever we decide to pay.

SpaceX remains private, probably for exactly this reason.