The SpaceX Files

Elon Musk
SpaceX founder and C.E.O. Elon Musk Photo: Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images
William D. Cohan
July 22, 2026

Last month’s SpaceX I.P.O., as you know, was pure bonkers. The company completed an $85.7 billion equity raise, the largest of all time, at a share price of $135. The resulting $2.1 trillion market cap—achieved at the end of its first day on the public markets—was quite the feat of financial engineering, requiring the services of 23 Wall Street investment banks, including all of the so-called Big Five: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (the lead underwriters), as well as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup. Together, the underwriters hoovered up a tidy $555,555,555—the biggest fee bonanza in Wall Street history. Goldman and Morgan Stanley received $111 million apiece, while the other three banks were paid some $83 million each.