Shares Fall Below IPO Level Intraday
SpaceX shares briefly traded below their initial public offering price for the first time on Wednesday, just over a month after the company completed the largest IPO on record and helped make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
Stock Closes Just Above $135
The stock ended the session down 0.6% at 135.27 dollars, after falling as low as 132.28 dollars during the day. That intraday level placed the shares below the 135 dollar IPO price.
Valuation Pulls Back Sharply
The decline leaves SpaceX well below the highs reached last month, when its valuation briefly climbed above those of Microsoft and Amazon. The company was valued at more than 2.6 trillion dollars at its peak, compared with about 1.78 trillion dollars on Wednesday afternoon.
Wall Street Enthusiasm Cools
The move shows how quickly investor excitement can fade, even for a company backed by Musk and built around ambitious plans spanning rockets, artificial intelligence infrastructure and future space-based projects.
Liquidity Pressure Adds to Selling
Justus Parmar, chief executive of SpaceX investor Fortuna Investments, said some shareholders may be looking to take liquidity after the IPO. He suggested that this selling pressure could continue through the year as more investors seek to cash out part of their holdings.
Debt-Funded AI Spending Raises Questions
Investor concern has also grown around SpaceX’s debt-funded expansion into artificial intelligence infrastructure. Last month, the company raised 25 billion dollars in the bond market to help finance costly technology projects whose returns remain debated on Wall Street.
Rate Hike Fears Pressure Tech Valuations
The pullback also reflects broader concern over what potential Federal Reserve rate hikes could mean for high-growth technology valuations. Companies priced for years of future expansion are often more sensitive when investors expect borrowing costs to rise.
Analysts Point to Profit-Taking
Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, said the stock’s retreat appears linked to profit-taking, a reassessment of valuation and the unwinding of extremely bullish positioning after one of the most anticipated listings in years.
Losses Fuel Valuation Debate
Stocks can fall below their IPO price, especially during market stress. Still, SpaceX’s decline may strengthen criticism that its valuation was stretched, particularly because the company lost 4.9 billion dollars last year and many of its long-term projects remain unproven.
Nasdaq 100 Addition Fails to Stop Decline
The stock’s inclusion in major indexes, including the Nasdaq 100, has not reversed the weakness. SpaceX shares are down about 13% since being added to the tech-heavy benchmark.
Market Looks Ahead to First Results
Investor attention is now turning to SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company. Analysts expect the results to be released in the first week of August, giving the market its first detailed look at performance since the listing.
Lock-Up Expiration Could Add Pressure
After the earnings report, the first phase of the IPO lock-up period is set to expire. That would allow eligible employees and some early shareholders to begin selling portions of their stakes, a development analysts say could create additional pressure on the stock.
Starship Test Flight Remains Critical
Investors are also watching the company’s 13th Starship test flight. The rocket’s successful development is central to SpaceX’s plans to reduce launch costs and support long-term projects such as orbital data centers and lunar missions.
A Long-Term Story Meets Short-Term Volatility
Parmar said the company is still only about 30 days into its public-market experiment. He argued that the larger issue is whether the 85 billion dollars Musk raised can help SpaceX reach its next phase of growth, a process that will take years to judge rather than a few weeks of trading.
