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Consider This from NPR

SpaceX goes public and is now worth trillions. What happens now?

Consider This from NPR

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, Daily News, News

4.26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

SpaceX is now publicly traded, and it’s leaning heavily into space and AI. What does that mean for us humans here on earth?

Today, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX had a banner day in the stock market. The company is now valued at more than $2 trillion.

That is, after an already record-breaking initial public offering, or IPO.

That historic IPO is likely to make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

And while SpaceX isn't profitable yet, investors have big expectations for the company’s ambitions in space and artificial intelligence.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Alejandra Marquez Janse, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane and Becky Brown.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Patrick Jarenwattananon. 

Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

It's consider this, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, SpaceX debuts on the stock market.

0:12.4

That's the NASDAQ opening bell Friday morning. It was a big day for the tech market and SpaceX and for regular investors who can now buy the company's shares.

0:23.1

That is because the SpaceX IPO, initial public offering, shattered records valued at $75 billion.

0:31.4

And that was before today's trading started.

0:34.5

And let me tell you, if people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, man,

0:40.2

you must be smoking some really good crack.

0:42.8

Because I think this company is going to fail.

0:47.0

Watching the opening bell from Starbase in Texas was CEO Elon Musk.

0:51.7

In fact, I told people this.

0:53.1

I said, look, we're probably going to fail,

1:00.9

but we should give it a try because if we don't, if there's not a new company that enters space,

1:07.9

we will never be a truly space-bearing civilization. That historic IPO is likely to make Musk the world's first trillionaire. And while SpaceX is not profitable yet, investors have big expectations for the company

1:15.8

in space and artificial intelligence.

1:18.1

You know, while the other aerospace companies, they build good rockets and everything,

1:22.6

they were simply not pursuing the technology that's necessary to make life

1:27.1

multi-planetary. to make Star Trek, to make the exciting science fiction futures that we've read

1:39.6

about real.

1:41.5

And that's what SpaceX is all about,'s to take the fiction out of science fiction.

1:46.1

Consider this. One of the world's biggest companies is now publicly traded and it's leaning

1:51.9

heavily into space and AI. What does that mean for us humans here on Earth?

1:59.5

From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

2:01.8

It's consider this from NPR.

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