SpaceX stock sinks back to IPO price after $86B debut
Curated by the Inblix editorial team
The post-IPO hangover has officially arrived for SpaceX. Shares of the rocket company dipped to just above $135 on Wednesday, brushing against the same price Elon Musk and his bankers set ahead of the June 12 IPO that pulled in a staggering $86 billion. The stock briefly slid below $133 during the day before clawing back to close at $135.27. That’s a sobering fall from the $200-plus levels it hit in the days after going public, when Musk’s company briefly sported a valuation that put it in the same conversation as Amazon and Microsoft.
The decline hasn’t been a flash crash — it’s been a steady, week-by-week deflation. That kind of grind lower suggests something more than just jittery traders. A lot of the volatility stems from a tiny float: only 4% of SpaceX shares are actually trading on the Nasdaq. Thin supply plus relentless attention creates huge swings, but the direction of those swings tells a story. The markets seem to be reassessing Musk’s sweeping interplanetary ambitions, and it’s happening against a backdrop of broader tech stock softness. Even the bonds SpaceX sold after the IPO are getting hit.
This matters beyond one company. SpaceX was supposed to be the proof of concept for a wave of buzzy AI and tech IPOs. Anthropic and OpenAI have both filed confidentially, and everyone’s watching SpaceX to gauge investor appetite. A prolonged slump here could cool the reception for those offerings before they even get off the ground. The stock is about to face another gut check, too.
On Thursday, SpaceX will test-launch Starship for the first time since going public. Starship is still deep in development, and SpaceX’s “fly, fail, fix” philosophy means failures are basically part of the plan. The last flight in May saw a booster failure. This time, the company isn’t even attempting recovery — both the booster and upper stage will simulate a landing in the Gulf of Mexico. That means they’ll end up in pieces no matter what happens. For a stock already trading at its IPO price, a public explosion isn’t exactly the kind of encore you want.
💡 Key Takeaways
- SpaceX's stock has lost value nearly every week since peaking above $200, suggesting a sustained market reassessment rather than a temporary dip.
- Only 4% of SpaceX shares are publicly traded, a tiny float that amplifies price swings but doesn't fully explain the steady downward trend.
- The company's IPO was viewed as a bellwether for upcoming offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI, and a prolonged slump could chill those debuts.
- Thursday's Starship test launch will end in a planned explosion of both rocket stages, putting Musk's development-first ethos directly in the public market spotlight.
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