SpaceX's publicly traded shares have dropped below the price at which they were first sold to investors, an unhappy milestone for a company whose stock market arrival, only weeks ago, was one of the largest ever.
The stock, which trades under the ticker SPCX, priced at $135 a share in June in what was billed as the biggest initial public offering in history. It then soared in its opening days, reaching an intraday high of about $225 within a week, before losing altitude. This week it dipped below the $135 debut price for the first time, CNBC reported.
From euphoria to second thoughts
The reversal reflects how sharply sentiment has swung. In the first flush of trading, SpaceX briefly ranked among the most valuable listed companies in the world, buoyed by enthusiasm for its Starlink satellite-internet business and its Starship rocket programme. As the initial excitement faded, and amid a broader pullback in technology stocks, investors began to focus more on the company's finances.
SpaceX spends enormous sums developing Starship and expanding Starlink, and remains some way from the kind of steady profits that public-market investors often demand. Analysts have pointed to that heavy investment, along with profit-taking after the early surge and the prospect of more shares becoming available for sale as post-IPO restrictions lift in the coming weeks, as reasons for the slide.
Still a giant, but a test ahead
A dip below the offering price is a symbolic blow, but it does not change the fact that SpaceX remains one of the most valuable companies to have gone public, and a dominant force in the launch and satellite businesses. What has changed is the mood: the gap between the story investors told themselves at the IPO and the slower, costlier reality of building rockets and a global internet network.
For a company used to defying expectations in engineering, the next test is a financial one, convincing shareholders that its spending will eventually pay off. How the stock behaves as more shares free up for trading, and as SpaceX reports its progress on Starlink and Starship, will show whether this month's slide is a brief stumble or the start of a longer reckoning with its valuation.
