SpaceX Stock Falls Below IPO Price Amid Market Selloff
SpaceX stock fell to $150.55 in early trading July 7, down over 5% as it approached its IPO price, amid a broader market selloff and legal challenges to its Colossus 2 data center operations.
Objective Facts
On July 7, SpaceX shares fell to as low as $150.55 during early trading, nearing its first-day listing price of $150, down over 5%. The company briefly surpassed Microsoft and Amazon in market value before falling to its most recent valuation of $1.9 trillion. Market sentiment is weighed by a legal challenge against its Colossus 2 data center, which threatens the firm's $45 billion contract with Anthropic due to potential permit violations for gas turbines operating without required permits. SpaceX completed a $25 billion bond issuance with interest rates rising from 5.35% on the shortest tranches to 6.65% on the longest. The company's AI segment poured $7.72 billion into infrastructure in Q1 2026, posted an operating loss of $2.5 billion in the quarter, and reported a consolidated net loss of $4.28 billion for the quarter.
Deep Dive
The stock has fallen more than 30% from its post-IPO peak, pulling the company's market cap below $2 trillion, amid anticipated monetary tightening under Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh that has weighed particularly hard on technology companies whose valuations are sensitive to interest rates. Bloomberg reported SpaceX was looking to raise at least $20 billion through a bond sale shortly after its IPO, with investors spooked because they are "wary of the substantial cash required to fund technological ambitions," according to Jose Torres, a senior economist at Interactive Brokers financial group. The bond issuance triggered market concerns over cash burn rate and SpaceX's aggressive expansion, including the $60 billion acquisition of Cursor, with analysts projecting long-term capital expenditures that could exceed $1 trillion by 2031. In 2025, SpaceX lost around $4.9 billion, and if the company wants to continue spending heavily to scale its AI business plus invest in capital-intensive areas like rocket development and satellite launches, it may not be profitable for years to come, requiring continued capital market access to stay financially afloat. While SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service is profitable and generated about 60% of the company's $18.7 billion in revenue last year, SpaceX's AI division, which includes social media platform X, posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion last year, and SpaceX as a whole posted a $4.9 billion loss for the year. Market analysts believe there may have been an underwriting pricing discrepancy in the bond offering, or insufficient participation from long-term capital such as pensions and insurance funds, with a large portion of the $90 billion buying frenzy coming from hedge funds and short-term traders seeking spread profits. At a $1.75 trillion valuation, SpaceX would enter the Russell indexes at a substantial multiple of revenue and consolidated adjusted EBITDA on the order of 90x trailing revenue and well over 200x consolidated adjusted EBITDA, despite a net loss of $4.9 billion in FY2025 and $4.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026, and the pre-IPO valuation appears not to have been established through arm's-length market price discovery but rather through company-directed tender offers and a related-party merger in which the CEO controlled both sides of the transaction. Another factor looming is the expiry of equity lock-up periods, with 22V Research strategist Jeff Jacobson noting that there is a 20% insider share unlock in early to mid-August, plus a 10% unlock if the stock trades 30% above IPO price, with insiders potentially able to sell 44% of SpaceX shares by early September, increasing the current float of 4.2% by about 900%.