Shares of SpaceX dropped more than 6.5% on Thursday, falling to $178.50 as the post IPO euphoria that briefly propelled Elon Musk’s company past a $2.5 trillion valuation began to lose steam. The decline, which followed a nearly 5% drop in the previous session, erased over $150 billion in market value and dragged down the broader space sector, with Rocket Lab and Planet Labs each shedding around 3% and AST SpaceMobile falling approximately 7%. Despite the pullback, the stock remains more than 30% above its $135 offering price from the record breaking $75 billion IPO that made SpaceX the seventh largest publicly listed company in the United States and cemented Musk’s status as the world’s first trillionaire.
The cooling sentiment reflects a classic profit taking dynamic after one of the most frenzied debuts in market history. Retail investors, who had aggressively snapped up over $300 million worth of SpaceX shares in the first three trading sessions, dramatically pulled back on Thursday, with net purchases dropping to just $9.1 million by mid afternoon according to Vanda Research. Analysts had warned that volatility was inevitable given the company’s relatively small public float and astronomical valuation. “Given the magnitude of the IPO and the strong initial performance, some degree of profit taking is not surprising,” said IPOX Schuster analyst Kat Liu. The stock’s price to revenue ratio sits at roughly 94 times, based on 2025 revenue of $18.7 billion, a figure that dwarfs even the most richly valued tech giants and has prompted some analysts, including Morningstar, to suggest a fairer valuation closer to $780 billion.
Behind the valuation debate lies an aggressive expansion strategy that is stretching SpaceX’s capital needs. On Tuesday, the company announced it would acquire Anysphere, the startup behind the popular AI coding agent Cursor, in a $60 billion stock deal designed to bolster its presence in the enterprise AI tools market. The move follows SpaceX’s earlier acquisition of xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, effectively transforming the aerospace company into a hybrid space and AI conglomerate. To fund this ambition, SpaceX’s bankers are preparing to meet investors as early as next week to discuss a bond offering of at least $20 billion, which would refinance a bridge loan maturing in September 2027 and provide capital for AI infrastructure buildout. The company has also disclosed holdings of 18,712 Bitcoin, acquired at approximately $661 million and valued at roughly $1.29 billion as of March 31, adding another layer of volatility to an already complex investment thesis.
The coming months will test whether SpaceX can justify its premium valuation through operational execution or whether the market will continue to compress its multiple. The company is targeting Nasdaq-100 inclusion as early as September under fast track rules, which could trigger $10 billion to $20 billion in passive fund demand. S&P 500 inclusion, however, remains uncertain given the index’s profitability requirements, a hurdle SpaceX may not clear for 12 to 18 months given its nearly $5 billion net loss in 2025. For now, the pullback serves as a reminder that even the most hyped IPOs are subject to gravity, and that a $2.5 trillion valuation built on rockets, satellites, and AI dreams still requires tangible returns to sustain it.
