SpaceX Soars 19% on Debut, Market Cap Surpasses $2 Trillion to Become Sixth Largest U.S. Company

June 13 (Reuters) - SpaceX (SPCX.O) surged on its Nasdaq debut on Friday, with its market capitalization exceeding $2 trillion. The listing proceeded more smoothly than many observers had anticipated. The stock began trading late Friday morning and spent most of the session up 15% to 30% from Thursday's pricing, with relatively modest volatility. It closed around $161, up 19%, propelling the company into the ranks of the sixth largest in the United States. The final settlement price is yet to be determined. Trading volume exceeded 500 million shares, with a turnover of approximately $80 billion. With major listing plans from Anthropic and OpenAI on the horizon, market watchers had worried that a flood of new shares after a prolonged IPO drought could weigh on market performance. However, investors ranging from large institutions to Elon Musk's retail fans were in high spirits by the close. "SpaceX not only broke records in terms of IPO fundraising size, but also left other large companies far behind. It's impressive to add so much market value in an instant when the starting valuation was already approaching $2 trillion," said Dan Coatsworth, Head of Markets at AJ Bell.