SpaceX IPO at $150 Spurs Selloff in Space Peers

SpaceX began trading on Nasdaq at $150 a share, opening about 11% above its IPO price and valuing the company just under $2 trillion. The company sold more than 555 million shares in a roughly $75 billion offering, the largest initial public offering on record.

Shares of Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic, Intuitive Machines and EchoStar opened sharply lower after SpaceX’s listing as some investors sold positions in smaller space companies to raise cash for the new stock. Fund managers and retail traders shifted holdings toward SpaceX when its shares appeared on trading terminals.

Rocket Lab had gained about 100% year-to-date by late May, driven in part by investor interest in commercial space exposure. That premium narrowed once SpaceX shares became available. Virgin Galactic fell the most as investors compared its revenue and losses with the scale of SpaceX’s operations. Virgin Galactic reported $227,000 in revenue in its last quarter and a net loss of $64.7 million. Management expects second-quarter free cash flow to be negative about $87 million and has guided for gradual improvement through 2026, with Delta-class test flights targeted for the third quarter of 2026 and a first commercial flight in the fourth quarter of 2026.

SpaceX’s IPO filing cites a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion, a figure that includes enterprise demand for artificial intelligence applications using Starlink connectivity. The company reported about 10 million Starlink paid subscriptions. By comparison, Virgin Galactic holds hundreds of reservations for future flights, with ticket prices around $450,000 each.

At a market value near $2 trillion, SpaceX’s implied price-to-sales ratio is about 104 times current sales, compared with reported ratios of about 123 times for Rocket Lab and about 409 times for AST SpaceMobile. Market participants noted the different multiples as trading in smaller space names adjusted after SpaceX’s debut.

Analysts and investors identified upcoming operational events that could affect valuations of smaller firms, including Rocket Lab’s planned Neutron heavy-lift launch and Virgin Galactic’s first paying commercial mission. The IPO shifted where public capital is available in the commercial space sector and prompted portfolio rebalancing among investors.