SpaceX stock rose early Thursday as Elon Musk's rocket and AI company tried to shake off recent losses with some help from the U.S. Space Force.
The shares were up 1.6% at $114.29 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively. Microsoft was also helping many stocks on Thursday. Its shares were up almost 9% after a strong earnings report.
As for SpaceX, it was awarded a $1.6 billion contract for 18 Falcon 9 launches. All are expected to be completed by the end of 2027. (The implied per-launch price is about $89 million, or about 3,600 per metric ton of rocket capacity.)
Space launches fall into SpaceX's Space business segment, which generated 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) of $653 million from sales of $4.1 billion. It sent 2,213 metric tons into orbit this past year.
SpaceX is the dominant launch company in the West. Its Falcon 9 has accounted for about 70% of space launches outside of China this year.
To be sure, the contract is the normal course of business for SpaceX but investors will take any good news right now. Coming into Thursday trading, SpaceX stock was down 17% from its $135 IPO price, and down 44% from its record closing high of $201.80.
Investors have been worried about valuation, which was north of 40 times estimated 2026 sales recently, and selling pressure as shares of early investors became available to trade in the weeks following the IPO.
Next up for SpaceX is earnings, due on Aug. 4. "We think earnings can meaningfully alleviate some of those pressures as the company proves out [AI compute] profits, clarifies capital funding...and clears its initial lockup headwinds," wrote Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Colin Canfield in a preview report.
He rates shares Buy and has a $246 price target.
SpaceX has rented data-center capacity to both Alphabet and Anthropic. How that is offsetting recent losses in its AI business will be a key thing to watch for investors.
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