Catenaa, Saturday, August 08, 2026- SpaceX shares jumped for a second straight day on Friday, bringing them close to breaking back above the company’s $135 IPO price.
Friday’s 16% surge brought the stock’s two-day rally to about 23%, adding more than $327 billion in market value over that span.
Investors snapped up shares of the Elon Musk-led rocket, space and artificial intelligence company even as restrictions blocking some early insiders from selling were lifted on Thursday.
Analysts had warned that the end of the first lockup could lead to selling pressure on the stock.
The lockup expiration more than doubled the total number of shares available to trade to 1.55 billion from the 639 million in circulation when Space Exploration Technologies, as it’s formally known, went public.
The move is a swift reversal for the stock that had been under pressure, shedding more than $1 trillion in market value from the high it hit shortly after its record IPO.
Shares faced additional pressure earlier in the week after the company’s first public earnings release, falling 14% on Wednesday after SpaceX reported higher-than-expected spending on its artificial intelligence business.
More than 250 million SpaceX shares have been sold short, or about 16% of those available to be traded, according to data from S3 Partners. That figure had topped 36% on Wednesday before the 911.5 million shares were unlocked for trading.
“I’m sure there were some bearish bets that had to be unwound today,” Maley added.
Before the two-day rally, short sellers had amassed paper gains of more than $9 billion betting on the stock’s slump.
Of course, while the share lockup expiration gives early investors the option to sell their stakes, it is not a requirement. And, Wall Street has maintained an overwhelmingly bullish view on the company.
Argus Research upgraded its rating on the shares to buy from hold on Friday, saying it was encouraged by “rapid payback” on the firm’s AI infrastructure investments.
All told, nearly 80% of analysts covering SpaceX have given the stock a buy rating. Their average price target of roughly $221 implies more than 65% upside from where shares closed Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
