NEW YORK CITY, New York: Retail investors flocked to SpaceX shares on the company's first day of trading, helping fuel a strong market debut as demand for the record-breaking IPO spilled into both allocated shares and open-market purchases.

SpaceX and its underwriters reserved as much as 30% of the shares sold in the initial public offering for individual investors, an unusually large allocation that highlighted the importance of retail demand in the company's market debut.

Many investors closely monitored brokerage accounts and email notifications to learn how many shares they had received, while others turned to the open market after missing out on IPO allocations.

"I'm very happy with what I managed to get," said Joseph Gutheinz, a former NASA investigator who later became a lawyer. Gutheinz said he did not seek an IPO allocation but purchased $100,000 worth of shares at $161 each on Friday.

"It's a great investment," he said. "Win or lose, I'm happy to be invested at all."

Market analysts said strong retail participation contributed to the stock's first-day performance. SpaceX shares surged 19% in their debut session.

"This allocation to retail is far and away the highest I've ever seen in my decades on Wall Street," said Art Hogan, investment strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

"It's the latest, greatest shiny object for retail investors to get into right now."

A spokesperson for retail brokerage SoFi said the SpaceX offering became "the largest and most subscribed offering on our platform to date." The company added that all investors who met its eligibility requirements received an allocation.

According to Vanda Research, net purchases of SpaceX stock accounted for about 4% of all single-stock retail trading volume on Friday, totaling approximately $453 million. That was about 3.5 times the level recorded for Nvidia, which ranked second.

"Retail investors have shown up for SpaceX in a big way," Vanda Research said.

The firm reported that within the first 20 minutes of trading, SpaceX became one of the most actively purchased stocks among individual investors and later rose to the top position.

Not all investors received the allocations they requested. Posts on Reddit forums dedicated to the IPO showed some investors receiving far fewer shares than they had sought.

"Requested 250, received nothing," one user wrote. Others reported receiving only a fraction of their requested allocations.

Interest in the offering was also driven by longtime supporters of Elon Musk. The SpaceX founder, whose fortune crossed the trillion-dollar mark following the IPO, said in 2024 that retail investors, particularly shareholders of Tesla, should receive priority access if any of his private companies went public.

"Loyalty deserves loyalty," Musk wrote at the time on X.

Some existing SpaceX investors are also choosing to hold their shares despite the sharp rise in value. "Everyone wants to keep holding and celebrating right now; no one wants to even think of hedging their risk because they believe in the story so much," said Clint Sorenson, chief investment officer at Ascentis Asset Management.