SpaceX Dips Below IPO Price Ahead of Starship Launch

SpaceX shares dipped below $135 on Wednesday afternoon—the price CEO Elon Musk and the company set for its blockbuster June 12 IPO that raised nearly $86 billion—trading as low as $133 before rebounding back to $135 and occasionally hovering above it. The decline continues a month-long slide since the company went public.

Initially, the stock surged above $200 in the days following the IPO, briefly valuing SpaceX on par with tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft. However, shares have lost value nearly every week since that peak.

Much of the volatility stems from the fact that only 4% of the company's total shares are traded on the Nasdaq. This tiny "float," combined with intense media attention, has caused wild swings in the first month of trading. Markets also appear to be cooling on Musk's ambitious vision, part of a broader tech stock pullback over the past month.

SpaceX's bonds, sold after the IPO, are also under pressure. A prolonged downturn could have wider implications, as SpaceX's performance is seen as a bellwether for future tech IPOs, including those of Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which have confidentially filed for public offerings.

The company now faces another early test of its stock's durability: Thursday's Starship test launch—the first since a booster failure in May. Starship is still in development and prone to failures due to SpaceX's "fly, fail, fix" approach. The company does not plan to recover the booster or upper stage; instead, both will simulate a landing in the Gulf of Mexico, meaning they will end in an explosion regardless of any issues during flight.