SpaceX Stock Drops 23% From Post-IPO Peak
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- SpaceX shares plunged 16% Monday to close at $154.60, falling below the $160.90 closing price from their June 12 Nasdaq debut and marking a third-straight day of declines.
- From their June 16 high of $201.80, SpaceX stock is now down roughly 23%, wiping out most of the gains for average investors who bought on the open market after the IPO.
- The June 12 IPO generated more than $85 billion for SpaceX and pre-IPO shareholders, and the company retains a market cap of about $2 trillion — exceeding both Walmart and Meta.
- Bloomberg reported Monday that SpaceX is looking to raise at least $20 billion through a bond sale, which Interactive Brokers senior economist Jose Torres said spooked investors who are "wary of the substantial cash required to fund technological ambitions."
- The sell-off hit a broader market drawdown, with the S&P 500 down 0.43%, the Nasdaq off 1.3%, and Alphabet posting its worst single-day performance in over a year as tech investors grew concerned about rising debt burdens on AI-spending mega-caps.
- Consumer-focused stocks including Amazon, Chipotle, McDonald's, Home Depot, and Netflix also saw significant declines Monday, while oil prices dropped to lows not seen since March amid reported progress in US-Iran talks.
- Tech investors cited a specific worry that short-term inflation will increase the debt burden of mega-cap companies that have borrowed heavily to fund AI infrastructure.
Why it matters: SpaceX's $2 trillion market cap did not insulate it from a 23% slide in just 10 days, and the timing of the $20 billion bond sale — right after the largest IPO ever — shows the cash demands of SpaceX's tech ambitions outpace what even an $85 billion equity raise could cover, leaving newly public shareholders exposed to a debt burden pre-IPO holders were able to avoid.
