SpaceX shares tumble as post-IPO frenzy loses steam

SpaceX’s market debut has quickly turned into a test of how much perfection investors will tolerate. Shares fell more than 6% on June 18, with the stock last down 6.5% at $178.50, after a nearly 5% drop in the previous session. Even after that slide, the stock was still more than 30% above its $135 offering price, a reminder that the retreat was from an extreme surge, not from bargain levels.

The reversal followed an opening burst that briefly pushed Elon Musk’s rockets-to-AI company into the top tier of global market values. Earlier in the week, SpaceX’s market capitalization overtook Amazon’s and, for a time, even surpassed Microsoft’s. The company priced what Reuters described as the biggest-ever U.S. initial public offering at $135 a share, raising a record $75 billion by selling about 5% of its outstanding shares.

Trading on June 12 set the tone for the frenzy. SpaceX opened at $150, closed at $160.95 and touched an intraday high of $176.52, about 31% above the offer price. Retail traders piled in aggressively at first, with Vanda Research saying net purchases topped $300 million over the prior three sessions. By Thursday afternoon Eastern time, that enthusiasm had cooled sharply, with net buying down to $9.1 million.

The pullback was not limited to SpaceX. Rocket Lab and Planet Labs each fell about 3%, while AST SpaceMobile dropped roughly 7% and Intuitive Machines lost about 3%. The moves suggested that the latest SpaceX fade was also draining some of the speculative heat from the broader U.S. space trade.

Investors are now staring past the novelty of the listing and toward the capital demands behind it. SpaceX is preparing a potential bond offering of at least $20 billion, and bankers are meeting investors as the company looks to keep funding its next phase of expansion. At the same time, SpaceX has agreed to buy Anysphere, the startup behind Cursor, in a $60 billion all-stock deal aimed at strengthening its position in enterprise AI tools.

Kat Liu of IPOX Schuster said some profit-taking was not surprising after such a dramatic opening week. The message from the market was even clearer: after a blockbuster IPO, investors are no longer paying only for momentum. They want a visible profit path, proof the growth story can keep pace with the valuation, and evidence that the next round of expansion will not outrun the cash needed to fund it.