Zeus: For tech world, SpaceX IPO most awaited since Google

Three weeks of hype before June 12 debut will hypnotize tech investors

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As of May 1, shares of Google, now called Alphabet, have gained 14,476.60%.

It’s been almost 22 years since Google became a public company and I can still remember the tremendous investor hype around the offering and its prospects. The August 2004 debut of the world’s largest Internet search firm, coming only six years after Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the company, captivated the market.

Despite the hype, the Dutch auction that Google used for its launch didn’t go exactly as planned. After a manufactured pop on the first day, the shares languished for a few months afterward as small investors caught up with larger ones selling at a profit. Then the shares caught fire. A $1,000 investment back then would be worth as much as $66,000 today after splits, according to Yahoo Finance.

Now comes Elon Musk’s SpaceX to test the new tech era of AI, space satellites, and renewable energy. While Google’s IPO raised $1.2 billion and valued the young company at $23 billion (versus $4.8 trillion today), SpaceX is expected to raise about $75 billion, more than double the IPO of Saudi Aramco a few years ago to make it the largest IPO to date.