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Marvin Jung isn't buying into SpaceX because he thinks it's a bargain. The 51-year-old regional director of operations in veterinary care believes Elon Musk's rocket company is coming public at a valuation that is "really, really aggressive." Yet, he still requested 1,000 shares through Robinhood , betting enthusiasm for one of the world's most anticipated initial public offerings will overwhelm concerns about price. SpaceX has set a fixed price of $135 per share in the leadup to its IPO on Friday, placing its valuation at $1.77 trillion. That would make SpaceX immediately the seventh-biggest company in the U.S. based on market cap – higher than Tesla even. "It's outrageous. It's stupid. It's unreasonable, to be frankly honest with you," Jung said of the valuation. That hasn't stopped him from trying to get an allocation, especially given that SpaceX is directing an unusually high amount of shares to retail. The retail allocation is in the low 20% range. Although that's lower than the 30% previously expected, that's still a much bigger cut than usual, as most IPOs only offer between 5% and 10% to retail, per Fidelity. Traders can request access to IPO shares through various brokerage platforms, including Fidelity, which has set its brokerage account balance minimum for traders at $2,000. That's significantly lower than the threshold of between $100,000 and $500,000 that Fidelity typically sets for IPOs, according to a source familiar with the matter. A self-directed investor who trades in his spare time, Jung was active during the meme-stock boom and follows markets closely through Reddit investing forums. His plan isn't to become a long-term SpaceX shareholder. Instead, he hopes to capitalize on what he expects will be a powerful first-day rally and then move on. "With SpaceX and what Elon is doing, this is like a beautiful symphony of all the right trigger meme words," he said. "I think this has got pretty good potential to pop strong the first day. I'm going to guess at least 30% minimum." Jung said he intends to sell shortly after trading begins. He wants to free up capital for what he sees as the next wave of blockbuster offerings – Anthropic and OpenAI. The investor has to be careful though, as retail brokerage firms have anti-flipping policies to penalize traders who get out too early. Fidelity, for instance, specifies that if a trader sells their allocation within the first 15 calendar days from the debut, their ability to participate in future public offerings will be impacted. "Time to go. Thank you, Elon. I spent a lot on my wife's Tesla. I need some of that back," he said with a laugh.
Not betting against Elon
Since Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, the company has grown into a conglomerate, comprising not just its business in reusable rockets but also satellite internet service Starlink and xAI. With its IPO, Musk's net worth could move past $1 trillion. "Elon gets this premium multiple because he has this vision of what's going to happen in the future," said Michael Monaghan, portfolio manager at Founder ETFs, a firm that tracks 100 founder-led U.S.-listed companies through the actively managed Founders 100 ETF (FFF) . "He builds it faster than anyone else," he continued, before later saying, "You just can't model that in a traditional valuation framework." His remarks come as SpaceX has secured key compute deals with Anthropic and Google in recent weeks. Anthropic has agreed to pay the company $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, while Google has committed to give SpaceX $920 million a month for 32 months.
SpaceX, Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk (R) and Google CEO Sundar Pichai attend the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump at the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, on January 20, 2025. Trump takes office for his second non-consecutive term as the 47th president of the United States. Kevin Lamarque | Afp | Getty Images
With the addition of the Google deal disclosed during SpaceX's roadshow last week, the company more than doubled its revenue projections for 2026, Monaghan said. "I've never seen anything like it," he continued. The portfolio manager estimates that SpaceX could reach $200 billion in revenue by 2030 – a forecast he deems "conservative." With all the optimism surrounding the IPO – and the odds that Musk could be the world's first trillionaire – retail investor Mikey Moran has a fear of missing out just like other investors. Moran is no stranger to catching a hype wave: In July 2025, he bought 10,000 shares of Opendoor Technologies . The next two days, the stock surged roughly 79%. "This is the Super Bowl of IPOs," he said about SpaceX. Moran, a 49-year-old founder of a hair extension and beauty supply company, ultimately received 11 of the 20 shares he requested through Robinhood, though he had mentioned he's "on the fence of whether it's a good trade." To him, it'll be a shorter-term investment rather than a long-term holding, with Moran saying he's willing to take "a little bit of a risk" despite concerns about the company's valuation. "How can you not want to be part of the biggest?" he added. Moran revealed that getting out of Tesla too early years ago was one of the biggest trading mistakes he's ever made. Back in 2018, the trader bought the stock and held it for only a couple weeks, thinking that he should quit while he was ahead and take some profits as the stock was ramping up. Little did he know Tesla shares would continue to surge in the years to come. Since the beginning of 2018, the stock has skyrocketed more than a whopping 1,700% to a $1.5 trillion valuation.
Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon TSLA shares, since the beginning of 2018
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