SpaceX shares slipped below their $135 initial public offering price for the first time on Wednesday, extending a fourth consecutive daily decline just over a month after Elon Musk's rocket, satellite and artificial-intelligence company completed a record $86 billion U.S. listing.
The stock touched $132.62 during the session before closing at $135.27, a drop of more than 2 percent on the day against a 0.2 percent decline for the broader Nasdaq, according to the BBC. From a post-debut high of more than $225 a share, SpaceX is down 41 percent, meaning buyers who piled in around the flotation now face paper losses if the price holds.
Off the peak
June's offering briefly gave SpaceX a market value greater than Amazon's or Microsoft's and made Musk the world's first trillionaire. Shares surged about 20 percent on the first full day of trading, CNBC reported, as investors initially treated the listing as the first chance to buy into an artificial-intelligence company following SpaceX's acquisition of Musk's xAI startup, since renamed SpaceXAI.
Index flows, then slide
Last week's induction into the Nasdaq-100 pulled passive index funds into the stock. SpaceX qualified under a recent rule change that shortened the eligibility period for newly public companies to 15 trading days. Shares slid below their $150 first-trade price the day after joining the index and have kept falling.
The company's main business remains the manufacture and launch of rockets and Starlink communications satellites, alongside a data-center leasing operation absorbed from xAI. SpaceX stock fell 8 percent earlier this month after Starlink said it would cut prices in the Memphis, Tennessee, area amid local opposition to a planned data-center project.
What analysts see
"There hasn't been anything that lately to remind people of some of the catalysts for why they bought SpaceX," Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers, told Reuters. Sosnick added: "The fact that a stock has fallen a couple of dollars below its IPO price in itself is not a tragedy, but SpaceX is heavily watched and has an important role in investor psyche."
The company view
SpaceX did not respond to a BBC request for comment. Wednesday's coverage came entirely from center-lean wire and broadcast outlets, and no company rebuttal, dissenting analyst note or opposing framing had surfaced in the public record by press time.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch its 13th Starship test flight on Thursday, and the company is expected to release its first public earnings report in August.