Just one week after its record-breaking initial public offering, SpaceX rapidly scaled the ranks of the world’s most valuable corporations. Driven by a trading frenzy in newly listed derivatives, SpaceX shares jumped 4.8% to close at $201.80, locking in a staggering $2.65 trillion market capitalization. This represents an $800 billion surge from its IPO baseline, vaulting Elon Musk’s rocket-and-AI empire past Amazon and briefly ahead of Microsoft.
Read: Meta rolls out WhatsApp plus in South Africa for R29 p/m
The primary driver of the rally was the debut of SpaceX options contracts, which sparked intense speculative volume. More than 500,000 contracts changed hands within the first hour of trading, ballooning past one million by early afternoon. This heavily bullish volume forced options dealers—who had to square their own risk—to aggressively buy up the underlying stock. Consequently, daily share turnover hit $61 billion, the highest among large US-listed firms. Trading experts noted that despite its multitrillion-dollar size, the stock’s hyper-momentum gives it the volatile trading characteristics of a “meme stock.”
SpaceX’s meteoric valuation stands in stark contrast to its current financial baseline. While Wall Street’s tech titans boast bumper profits, SpaceX reported a net loss of $4.94 billion on revenues of $18.67 billion last year, heavily impacted by absorbing the unprofitable xAI ecosystem. Because of its high valuation and relatively small public float, market analysts urge investors to brace for severe near-term swings.
Crucially, the upward trajectory is poised to find structural support through automated institutional inflows:
- Index Inclusion: The company is on a fast track to join the Nasdaq 100, while FTSE Russell and MSCI will integrate the stock into their global indexes effective June 26 and June 29, respectively, triggering massive automated buying by passive ETFs.
- Greenshoe Funding: Underwriters officially exercised their “greenshoe” over-allotment option, boosting SpaceX’s total IPO proceeds to a historic $85.7 billion from the initial $75 billion raised last week.
