Space Funding

Hey crew,

Jose here with another Space Funding Newsletter.

The largest IPO in history closed Thursday night.

$75 billion raised. $1.77 trillion valuation. Hundreds of billions are flowing back to investors.

Here's where it goes next, and why private markets just entered a new era.

DEAL
SpaceX: The Numbers Behind the Largest IPO in History

On Thursday, June 12, 2026, SpaceX officially began trading on the Nasdaq after pricing its initial public offering at $135 per share and raising $75 billion, making it the largest IPO in history by a significant margin. The stock, trading under the ticker SPCX, opened at roughly $175, about 30% above the IPO price.

SpaceX sold 555.6 million shares at the $135 offering price, with retail participants placing approximately $100 billion in orders via platforms such as Robinhood, Fidelity, and SoFi throughout the IPO process — a level of interest that alone exceeded the company's $75 billion fundraising objective.

At a $1.75 trillion valuation, the company is being priced at roughly 94 times its 2025 annual revenue of $18.7 billion. The company reported a net loss of $4.9B in 2025, yet investors handed it a near-$2 trillion valuation built on orbital data centers, Mars, and Starlink's 2-billion-person addressable market. The conviction was not in the present. It was in the trajectory.

SECTION 02 | THE WINNERS
Who Got Paid, and How Much Capital Just Got Unlocked

This is where it gets relevant to every founder and investor in private markets. A small number of firms are set to net tens of billions of dollars in returns from SpaceX's IPO at a nearly $1.8 trillion valuation, marking one of the most significant windfalls in venture capital history.

Founders Fund and Valor Equity Partners are each sitting on positions worth more than $60 billion in paper gains. Sequoia invested approximately $2 billion in total and holds roughly 1.5% of the combined entity, implying returns exceeding $20 billion.

SECTION 03 | WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU
Hundreds of Billions Just Became Available to Redeploy. Here's Where It Goes.

Here is the part that every founder raising capital should understand: the SpaceX IPO is not just a story about one company going public. It is a liquidity event that will pump hundreds of billions of dollars back into the private markets ecosystem over the next 18 months.

Venture capital funds are legally obligated to return capital to their limited partners. Traditional venture capital funds are legally obligated to return capital to their limited partners. That obligation does not expire with the lockup. DFJ and Founders Fund invested in SpaceX before its valuation reached $1 billion, more than 15 years ago. Their LPs — endowments, pension funds, family offices — have been waiting for this distribution. When it comes, a significant portion gets reinvested."We didn't build Space Funding to grow a marketplace we could market to each time. We built it so founders could own their raise, own their data, and own their outcome. The Operator is the next layer of that."

SECTION 04 | THE RETAIL ANGLE
30% Retail Allocation. $100B in Orders. The Crowd Just Won.

SpaceX made an unusually concerted effort to draw in individual investors, including those based in Europe. Retail participants placed approximately $100 billion in orders via platforms such as Robinhood, Fidelity, and SoFi throughout the IPO process.

Let that number sit for a moment. Retail investors submitted $100 billion in demand for a $75 billion offering. The allocation of approximately 30% to retail, triple the standard norm, signals something the institutional establishment has been slow to accept: everyday investors are no longer content to arrive after the value has already been created.

This is the same instinct that has been driving Reg CF, Reg A+, and the entire equity crowdfunding market for the last four years. Investors want in early. They want to own the upside. And they've proven $100 billion in orders is proof that the capital is there when the opportunity is real.

What This Means for Reg CF, Reg D, and Reg A+ Founders

SpaceX just ran the world's largest retail investor acquisition campaign. They priced it at $135, allocated 30% to individuals, and got $100 billion in demand from people who simply did not want to miss out again. That psychology, "I'm not waiting for the IPO this time," is the same psychology that drives retail investors to your Reg CF campaign. The SpaceX IPO didn't just raise capital. It reminded 100 million retail investors that the best returns happen before the bell rings. Your raise is the bell before the bell.

SECTION 05 | HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Section 05 · Historical Context

The Biggest IPOs in History — In Context

SpaceX didn't just set a new record. It made the previous record look like a Series B. At $1.75 trillion, SpaceX would debut as roughly the seventh-largest U.S. company, above Tesla's market cap. For context: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are the only companies ahead of it. SpaceX, a private rocket company that lost $4.9B last year, is now worth more than Tesla, Walmart, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase.

SECTION 06
What Every Founder Raising Capital Should Do This Week

The SpaceX IPO is a validation event for the entire private markets ecosystem. It proves, at an almost incomprehensible scale, that patient private capital — the kind that backs companies before they're obvious — generates the returns that change funds, institutions, and individual lives. That's what Founders Fund knew in 2005. That's what retail investors lined up for in 2026.

The window between private and public is where wealth is built. SpaceX was worth $22 billion in 2017. It's worth $1.77 trillion today. The investors who captured that 80x return weren't waiting for the IPO — they were already in.