20/07/2026
SpaceX Stock Plummets Below IPO as Selling Pressure, Shorts and Lockup Risk Mount
Just over a month after completing the largest initial public offering in history, SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) has seen its shares slide below their $135 debut price. The retreat wipes out significant gains from a post-listing surge that briefly pushed the aerospace and artificial intelligence conglomerate's market valuation beyond $2.2 trillion.
Trading has recently hovered around the $132 to $134 range, marking a roughly 40% reversal from the intraday peak of $225.64 reached in mid-June.
Several converging factors are currently driving the heavy sell-off:
Mounting Short Interest: Traders are aggressively betting against the stock. Roughly 29% to 30% of SpaceX's publicly tradable float—equivalent to about 185 million shares and $25 billion in bearish wagers—has been sold short. Short sellers have already booked an estimated $4 billion to $8.7 billion in paper profits during the downturn.
Impending Lockup Expirations: Selling pressure could intensify further as the first phase of the IPO lockup period approaches its expiration. An estimated 900 million additional shares held by eligible employees and pre-IPO investors may become available to trade as soon as August, prompting some current traders to cash out ahead of the potential supply deluge.
Valuation and Profitability Concerns: The unwinding of bullish positioning comes amid broader tech market stress and scrutiny over the company's bottom line. While the Starlink satellite network remains a highly profitable revenue driver, the integration of Elon Musk's xAI venture has weighed heavily on margins, pushing the combined entity into a reported $4.9 billion net loss for 2025 due to massive AI infrastructure costs.
Credit Market Jitters: Investors are also pulling back from SpaceX's recently issued corporate debt. Yields on the company's 30-year bonds, issued in late June to raise $25 billion, have spiked from 6.7% to 7.4%, dragging the price of the notes down to roughly 91% of face value.
Despite rapidly joining major indexes like the Nasdaq 100 shortly after its debut, the stock has struggled to maintain its early momentum. Market participants are now looking toward SpaceX's first quarterly earnings report as a public company and the upcoming 13th Starship test flight as critical catalysts that could either stabilize the valuation or deepen the current correction.
