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Late last month, a crowd gathered in South Padre Island, Texas, to watch the nearby launch of a new SpaceX rocket.
Thousands showed up, far more than the hundreds drawn to previous SpaceX launches. On livestreams of the event, people were heard asking one another if they were investing in the company’s blockbuster initial public offering, which is set to take place this month.
“Major shout-out to Elon,” the rapper Nicki Minaj said on one livestream, referring to SpaceX’s chief executive, Elon Musk. Ms. Minaj, who wore a black “Starship” T-shirt, bearing the name of SpaceX’s biggest rocket, said that it was her first time attending a launch and that she was “very excited.”
As SpaceX prepares for one of the largest I.P.O.s ever, few are as thrilled as the community of people who lovingly call themselves space nerds.
On Reddit forums dedicated to rocket science and astronomy, enthusiasts have posted about how the offering could help space exploration. On podcasts that dissect images of deep space, hosts have fielded questions about investing in the stock market. And on X, Mr. Musk’s social media platform, livestreams featuring SpaceX rockets have discussed how high the company’s stock price could go on the first day of trading.
The I.P.O. is expected to create generational wealth. On Wednesday, SpaceX set a $135 share price for the deal that would give the company a value of $1.77 trillion. As the first “mega offering” this year, before the expected I.P.O.s of the artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic, SpaceX’s stock market debut has generated excitement from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.
