SpaceX Drops 6.5% for Second Day After Record IPO
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- SpaceX shares dropped 6.5% to $178.50 on Thursday, the second straight session of declines, after falling nearly 5% the prior day
- SpaceX remained more than 30% above its $135 IPO offering price, though its $2.52 trillion market cap could shrink by more than $150 billion if Thursday's losses hold
- IPOX Schuster analyst Kat Liu called profit-taking unsurprising given the IPO's magnitude, noting this has been a "particularly eventful and shortened trading week for the largest IPO in history"
- Vanda Research data showed retail investors had bought more than $300 million of SpaceX shares over the prior three sessions, but net purchases thinned to just $9.1 million by 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday
- SpaceX announced a $60 billion stock deal on Tuesday to acquire Anysphere, maker of the AI coding agent Cursor, as investors weigh whether the company's rich valuation can justify its costly AI push
- SpaceX bankers are preparing to meet investors as early as next week to discuss a bond offering of at least $20 billion to fund AI expansion
- Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, AST SpaceMobile, and Intuitive Machines all fell as well — roughly 3%, 3%, 7%, and 3% respectively — as the slide spread across U.S. space stocks
Why it matters: A potential $150 billion single-day erosion in market cap shows that the post-IPO surge past $2.5 trillion rested heavily on retail euphoria ($300 million of buying in three days, collapsing to $9.1 million Thursday). With a $60 billion Cursor acquisition already signed and a $20 billion bond deal queued up, SpaceX's ability to fund its AI ambitions hinges on whether the public market sustains that valuation through volatility.
