To add a quote and details

From Mania Saini, Echo Wang, and Nikit Nishant

June 12 (Reuters) - SpaceX shares jumped 23 percent in their first trade on the Nasdaq on Friday, pushing the company's valuation to more than $2 trillion, as investors flocked to the world's largest initial public offering, optimistic about billionaire Elon Musk's wide-ranging successes in areas from rockets to artificial intelligence.

The stock opened at $150, compared to its initial public offering price of $135 per share. It closed at $166, making SpaceX the sixth-largest U.S. company by market capitalization.

The initial public offering is being closely watched given its importance to the IPO market, which some bankers predicted would face difficulties if SpaceX's share price fell below Thursday's price.

The company's market debut is widely seen as a test for a new generation of mega listings, as market participants await signs of investor appetite ahead of the anticipated initial public offerings of Anthropic and OpenAI, two of the largest artificial intelligence companies.

The stock's performance will be a test of what is known as the "Musk premium," which has been the driving force behind Tesla's trillion- dollar valuation despite the pressures it faced during Musk's tenure in the administration of US President Donald Trump.

This historic listing cements Musk's status as the world's first trillionaire and propels SpaceX into the ranks of the world's most valuable companies, even though the company suffered a loss of nearly $5 billion last year and generated only a fraction of the revenues achieved by similarly valued tech giants.

"I gave SpaceX only a 10 percent chance of success," Musk said in Texas ahead of the opening of trading.

* Largest IPO ever

The record-breaking IPO represents the culmination of Musk's ambitions in the space and technology sectors, and has attracted huge numbers of individual investors to the market.

With $75 billion raised, the IPO's proceeds more than doubled those of Saudi Aramco, the previous record holder, when it listed in 2019.

The company's value could rise even further if the underwriters exercise their right to sell additional shares, a decision that is usually made within 30 days after the offering.

SpaceX announced that its market potential is $28.5 trillion, a figure it described as the largest ever. Thanks to its leading position in the space sector—the company says it is responsible for more than 80 percent of space launches over the past three years—and the revenue from its Starlink service, some investors believe it has a strong foundation to build upon.