Beyond SpaceX: Why great IPOs depend on more than first-day demand

Good morning. The frenzy around trillion-dollar IPOs is back—and for many investors, so is the fear of missing the next Nvidia.

In a new Fortune feature article, my colleague Amanda Gerut examines what’s driving demand for blockbuster IPOs like SpaceX—and why investor psychology can matter just as much as company fundamentals. Financial advisor Jeff Barnett captures the tension: Even disciplined portfolios sometimes make room for a “lottery ticket” trade, if only to avoid missing what could become a generational wealth event.

Gerut writes: “SpaceX, Anthropic, and eventually OpenAI are the IPOs people are dreaming about, especially if they feel the ache of missing out on Nvidia: $10,000 in Nvidia a decade ago would be worth roughly $1.8 million today. When SpaceX went public, more than 500 million shares traded—marking the second-heaviest first-day IPO volume in Nasdaq history, behind only Facebook’s 580 million in 2012. But here’s the thing. If you missed day one, all is not lost. And in fact, history shows you may have better opportunities to buy in the future.”

For CFOs, an IPO isn’t just a liquidity event—it’s the ultimate test of an equity story. Finance chiefs spend months refining the narrative, sharpening the metrics, and testing the waters with institutional investors to gauge whether the investment case will hold up once the market opens. History suggests that the real measure of an IPO isn’t the first-day pop but the company’s ability to earn investor confidence over time. While some investors chase allocations in hot trillion-dollar IPOs, CFOs are focused on the other side of the table: building an equity story that can withstand scrutiny long after opening day.

To see the three rules investing professionals use to evaluate the market’s biggest IPOs—and why those lessons matter whether you’re allocating capital or raising it—read Gerut’s complete article here.

Sheryl Estrada [email protected]