'Mega bubble or fairy tale?': Uday Kotak reacts to SpaceX's historic IPO

Veteran banker Uday Kotak reacted to SpaceX's blockbuster Wall Street debut, saying that the company's massive valuation does not fit traditional ways of valuing businesses. In a post on X, Kotak wrote, "SpaceX IPO, listing, and beyond, is a true test for capitalism. The valuation does not fit any traditional matrix and is a huge bet on the future course of planet earth. Only time will tell whether we, the human race, have arrived into the fairy tale world we grew up in as children, or are in a mega bubble.” He further added, “Either ways, kudos to the man who came as an immigrant, and to the country that has allowed such boundless creativity to flourish despite all the risks it embeds." The Kotak Mahindra Bank founder’s comments came after Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire as SpaceX shares soared following the company's stock market debut. SpaceX shares jumped more than 19% after trading began on Friday. The stock opened at around $150 a share, rose to about $168 and ended the day just below $161. The closing price gave the company a market value of $2.1 trillion, making SpaceX the sixth-largest listed company in the US and larger than Tesla. According to Forbes, Musk is now worth an estimated $1.1 trillion through his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla. Musk has said SpaceX went public to raise money for its future plans, including launching more satellites and data centres into space and eventually building a human colony on Mars. He marked the start of trading by joining Nasdaq's ceremonial bell-ringing from Starbase in South Texas. He repeated his goal of wanting "to make life multiplanetary." "Not just a few astronauts, I mean literally you," Musk said. "Whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to Mars and ultimately beyond." The company raised $75 billion through its IPO after offering shares at $135 each before trading began, beating the previous record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. SpaceX has also spoken about plans to build a one-million-person colony on Mars, create other outposts in space, launch football field-sized data centres into orbit and compete with Anthropic and OpenAI in artificial intelligence. At the same time, the company continues to spend heavily. Between the start of 2025 and March 31, 2026, SpaceX lost $8.7 billion. Some analysts have questioned whether the company's valuation is justified. Morningstar called the IPO "significantly overvalued" and estimated SpaceX was worth $780 billion, citing technology challenges and competition in AI. SpaceX has acknowledged in regulatory filings that parts of its business plans depend on "unproven technologies." The company also said its AI business, xAI, has no clear path to profitability and is burning cash as it tries to catch up with rivals. Still, many investors remain optimistic. "There's a lot of hype, but I see the faith that investors have in Musk," said Yordys Coro, an IT support contractor in Miami whose $14,000 investment in SpaceX grew to $17,000 in just a few hours. "I'm going to hold on." As investors celebrate SpaceX's market debut, Kotak's comments reflect the bigger question surrounding the company, whether its huge valuation represents the future that Musk is building or a market that has raced ahead of traditional measures of value.