Should You Buy SpaceX Stock? What to Know Before the Biggest IPO in History Hits the Market.

It's almost here. Assuming nothing changes in the meantime, the stock market's biggest-ever public offering will happen on Friday, valuing -- at least initially -- SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) at a whopping $1.77 trillion.

The question is: Should you try to participate in the actual public offering, or even step in after it begins trading on an exchange at what's sure to be a measurably higher price than the IPO price of $135 per share?

Here's what you need to know.

Image source: Getty Images.

The SpaceX IPO in a nutshell

While you likely know it as Elon Musk's space-launch company, the arguably outrageous valuation of $1.77 trillion makes a little more sense when you also know that this company also owns satellite-based internet service Starlink, an artificial intelligence platform -- the one behind Grok, available at X (formerly Twitter, which SpaceX also owns) -- and an up-and-coming chipmaker. These aren't just marketable products or services. All of these are high-growth industries, and likely will be for a while. You could certainly do worse.

The conglomerate is also almost profitable. Although it lost nearly $2.6 billion last year, that's a relatively modest figure compared to 2025's revenue of almost $18.7 billion, with much of that loss linked to more than a doubling of research and development expenses that haven't yet begun paying off. SpaceX's cost of revenue is consistently about half of its top line. The company just needs more scale to work its way out of the red and into the black, which is the bet that anyone buying this stock here is ultimately making.

The thing is, you've actually got a shot at participating directly in the public offering that's usually limited to bigger investors and institutions. Musk has reportedly allocated up to 30% of the SpaceX shares about to be publicly issued to brokerage firms Fidelity, Robinhood Markets, SoFi Technologies, E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab, each of which will determine how to fairly get their allotment into ordinary retail investors' hands.

Most people won't get them this way, to be clear -- only a little less than 555.6 million shares are actually being publicly issued, for a total of $75 billion. That's only about 4% of its actual shares, or 4% of the entire company. But a few lucky investors will be selected for the initial direct placement of these shares. Everyone else will simply need to buy them in the open market after the fact at a price that's (ideally) palatable.

No guarantee

Just be careful what you wish for. Although many new IPO stocks bolt higher right out of the gate, most of them usually end up well below their peak price hit shortly after going public -- and often below their public offering price as well -- within a few weeks. Blame the rapid wind-down of all the bullish hype, mostly, which tends to buoy stocks before, during, and immediately after an IPO.

In other words, it might not be a bad idea to let the dust settle on this frenzy before diving in.

Charles Schwab is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Charles Schwab and recommends the following options: short June 2026 $97.50 calls on Charles Schwab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.