SpaceX Stock Plummets Below IPO Price as Short Sellers Profit

SpaceX’s landmark initial public offering on June 12 raised roughly $75 billion and gave the company a peak market value of over $2 trillion. Shares opened near $150, rose to an intraday high of $225, then fell 45 % to about $119, slipping below the $135 IPO price and wiping more than $1 trillion from its market capitalization. Analysts cite a looming insider share‑unlock, which could release roughly 20 % of the float, as an added downside pressure.

Data from S3 Partners shows that roughly 30 % of SpaceX’s float – about 192 million shares – have been sold short. The notional value of those short positions has risen from $4.5 billion in mid‑June to around $25 billion, delivering multi‑billion‑dollar gains for bearish investors. The stock’s decline is also being amplified by ETF indexing, which forced large fund purchases and subsequent sales when the price slipped.

Separately, SpaceX is pursuing an AI‑infrastructure build‑out and is in discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense for a multibillion‑dollar data‑center capacity contract. While these strategic moves could create new revenue streams, they have not yet offset the sharp equity‑price correction that dominates current market coverage.