Tesla shares dip as SpaceX debuts at $150

Tesla shares fell about 2.36% in late-morning trading on Friday after SpaceX began public trading at $150 a share. The stock spent much of the session fluctuating between small gains and losses; it has moved more than 3% in either direction on each of the last five trading days.

SpaceX opened at $150, below earlier market talk near $175 but above its $135 IPO price. The stock climbed above $160 soon after the open, which pushed the company’s market value past $2 trillion.

Some investors and market participants linked recent volatility in Tesla to the SpaceX debut. Gary Black, managing partner at The Future Fund, wrote on X that many retail buyers acquiring SPCX may trim Tesla positions to fund those purchases.

Research firm Trefis said SpaceX’s listing forces investors to compare the two companies directly. The firm calculated that SpaceX’s market value implies more than 90 times trailing sales, while Tesla trades at roughly 14 times sales.

Financials presented at the debut showed large differences in scale and recent performance. SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in revenue for 2025, with Starlink contributing $11.4 billion. Starlink’s revenue grew about 86% year over year and the unit delivered an estimated 63% EBITDA margin for 2025. Tesla reported $94.8 billion in revenue for 2025, a 3% decline from the prior year. Automotive revenue fell about 10% to $69.5 billion and vehicle deliveries declined roughly 9%, while operating margins continued a multi-year downward trend.

Trefis highlighted user and launch metrics for SpaceX: Starlink subscribers rose from 2.3 million in 2023 to 8.9 million at the end of 2025 and reached 10.3 million by March 2026 across 164 countries. Annual launches increased from 98 in 2023 to 170 in 2025, and the firm estimated SpaceX controls about 60% of the global launch market. The company also raised Starlink subscription prices earlier this year.

SpaceX reported a consolidated net loss of $4.9 billion for 2025, driven largely by losses at xAI. The artificial intelligence unit recorded an operating deficit of about $6.4 billion as it built data-center capacity and AI infrastructure, while generating about $3.2 billion in revenue. Trefis said xAI is monetizing some data-center capacity through contracts and described longer-term projects such as orbital data centers as speculative.

Trefis wrote, “SpaceX is expensive because it’s winning. Tesla is expensive because investors are hoping it will.” Analysts with a different view noted risks tied to SpaceX’s high valuation and funding needs. David Jagielski of The Motley Fool wrote that, given current prices, Tesla may be the safer option because it has established revenue and operations, while SpaceX could face volatility as it funds ambitious growth plans.

Market participants said they will watch trading flows in the days after the IPO, whether Tesla’s operational trends stabilize, and how SpaceX manages xAI losses and funds future expansion.