In the inaugural month following its stock market debut, SpaceX shareholders have shifted from jubilation to noticeable apprehension.
When the Elon Musk-co-founded aerospace firm offered its shares to retail investors on 12 June, a buying frenzy ensued.
Despite an initial offering price of $135 per share, the stock surged to $150 within hours, peaked at $176, and closed the day at $160.95.
This performance cemented SpaceX’s position as the largest initial public offering in history.
The subsequent week saw further gains, with an intraday high of $225, propelling the company’s market capitalization beyond those of Amazon and Microsoft.
“Any venture associated with Elon Musk tends to generate public enthusiasm,” noted Keith Snyder, an analyst at CFRA Research. “However, this also marked the first opportunity for investors to back a venture positioned as an artificial intelligence opportunity.”
Willy Lee, an investor at Neosteller—a platform enabling individuals to fund private firms—concurred that the IPO’s appeal was largely driven by artificial intelligence.
“The prevailing narrative cast SpaceX as an AI-centric enterprise,” he stated.
Earlier this year, SpaceX acquired Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI—now rebranded as SpaceXAIexternal and recognized for its contentious Grok chatbot—and has since begun renting data center capacity to other technology firms.