Published: October 6, 2026 | Category: Stocks | By Mahesh
SpaceX shares jumped almost 8% on Monday to close at $171.09, their highest level since mid-June, and the surge pushed Elon Musk's fortune back above $1 trillion.[1][4] The Bloomberg Billionaires Index put his net worth at $1.04 trillion after a one-day gain of $65 billion.[2] It is a sharp reversal for a stock that spent the summer sliding away from its first-week peak.
The move matters beyond one rich man's balance sheet. SpaceX's June listing was the largest IPO ever, so how it trades is a live test of whether investors will keep paying up for mega-listings. That question hangs over the whole pipeline, including the offerings we covered in our breakdown of Anthropic's IPO prospectus numbers.
How the stock got here
Rewind to June 12. SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq at $135 a share, issuing about 555.6 million shares and raising $75 billion, which beat the record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019.[3] Four days later it closed at $201.80, its best finish so far.[1] Then came the grind lower. The stock drifted down through the summer and bottomed in early August.[3]
Monday's close sits about 15% below that record and roughly 27% above the IPO price, by my arithmetic. CNBC's report puts the rebound from the August low at about 58%.[1] Bloomberg says the shares are up 13% since the start of October, while Benzinga counts more than 16% over five trading days.[2][5] The gap is just a different start date, but both tell the same story: the buyers are back.
What is driving the rebound
Analysts at Morgan Stanley gave the rally its clearest narrative. They told investors to buy before the next Starship test flight and before the third-quarter report expected in late October.[1] If SpaceX attempts to catch the Starship upper stage on that flight, the analysts called it potentially the biggest positive catalyst since the IPO.[1] Notice what that is: a bet on a single engineering event, not on this quarter's cash flow.
A second thread is Starlink. ARK Invest analysts estimated that the 26 Starlink V3 satellites on the upcoming flight could support nearly $560 million in annualised revenue.[4] That kind of per-launch maths is exactly what gives bulls a way to model Starship's payoff.
Then there is artificial intelligence. SpaceX gained an AI business through its acquisition of Musk's xAI last year and expanded it by buying Cursor recently.[1] That makes the company a hybrid of rockets, satellites and models, a mix that moves with sentiment on chips and compute too. If you want the hardware side of that story, our piece on the CoWoS packaging bottleneck explains why compute is so tight.
After the close, shares gained nearly 1% on reports that SpaceX had proposed a 32.4-mile natural gas pipeline in Brevard County, Florida to supply fuel for Starship launches from Cape Canaveral.[4] Small news, but it hints at how seriously the company is planning for a high launch rate.
The number behind the headline
Musk owns roughly 38% of SpaceX and around 11% of Tesla, according to Benzinga's tally.[5] That concentration explains the size of Monday's move. SpaceX rose 7.6% and Tesla 2.2%, and together they added about $58.7 billion to his wealth on Benzinga's math.[5] The next biggest gainer on that list, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, added $4.9 billion, so Musk's day was about twelve times larger.[5]
Treat the $1 trillion label with care. Forbes shows about $1.03 trillion and Bloomberg $1.04 trillion, because each uses its own method for valuing stakes.[1][2] It is also paper wealth that swings by tens of billions in a day. Musk first crossed the line in June around the listing, then slipped back below it as the shares fell.[5] Monday simply put him back on the right side of it.
The catch: a rich price on a loss-making business
Here is the part the headline skips. SpaceX posted 2025 revenue of $18.67 billion, up 33% year on year, but swung to a net loss of $4.94 billion.[3] A share price near $171 therefore reflects what investors expect from Starlink, Starship and AI, not what the company earns today. That is not unusual for a growth story. It does mean the stock can fall hard if a launch goes wrong or earnings disappoint.
Sentiment is running hot. On Stocktwits retail mood moved from bullish to extremely bullish, with message volume up about 1,098% in 24 hours.[4] Euphoria proves nothing by itself, but stocks that gather this much attention tend to move fast in both directions. There is also a political thread. At a New York City Council hearing on AI, one member complained that AI had inflated valuations and enriched executives like Musk, who did not attend.[1][3] Scrutiny of that kind may grow as his wealth does.
What this means for you
If you hold SpaceX or Tesla, or are thinking about it, remember that I am not a financial advisor and this is information, not a recommendation. Decide how much of your portfolio you are comfortable having tied to one founder's companies, and note that a single launch result can swing the price. If you follow startups and listings, the arc from record IPO to summer slump to autumn rebound is a handy case study in how hype, lock-ups and catalysts interact. For the wider hardware and AI picture, see our look at the robotics chip market.
Two dates are worth marking. The next Starship test flight has no confirmed date in the reporting I found. The third-quarter earnings report is expected in late October.[1] Those will show whether Monday was the start of a trend or a bounce.
Common Questions
Why did SpaceX stock jump on October 5, 2026?
SpaceX shares rose nearly 8% to close at $171.09, their highest level since mid-June. Morgan Stanley analysts told investors to buy ahead of the next Starship test flight and the third-quarter earnings report due in late October. Momentum in the company's AI business and a Starlink revenue estimate from ARK also added to the mood.
How much is Elon Musk worth after the SpaceX rally?
Bloomberg's index put Musk's net worth at $1.04 trillion after a one-day gain of $65 billion. Forbes' real-time list showed about $1.03 trillion. Both figures include his SpaceX and Tesla holdings, and both move daily with the share prices.
When did SpaceX go public and at what price?
SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq on June 12, 2026 at $135 per share. It issued about 555.6 million shares and raised $75 billion, which surpassed the record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. The stock hit a closing high of $201.80 on June 16 before pulling back.
What could move SpaceX shares next?
Two dates stand out. One is the next Starship test flight, where a successful catch of the upper stage could be a major catalyst according to Morgan Stanley. The other is the third-quarter earnings report expected in late October. Neither outcome is guaranteed.
Is SpaceX profitable?
Not on the latest annual figures reported. SpaceX posted 2025 revenue of $18.67 billion, up 33% from the year before, but swung to a net loss of $4.94 billion. Investors are largely pricing in future growth from Starlink, Starship and its AI business.
Sources
- CNBC, "SpaceX stock climbs to highest since June, returning Musk to trillionaire status", October 5, 2026. Link
- Bloomberg, "Musk Is a Trillionaire Again as SpaceX Claws Back Post-IPO Slump", October 5, 2026. Link
- BigGo Finance, "SpaceX Shares Surge Nearly 8%, Musk's Net Worth Back Above $1.03 Trillion", October 2026. Link
- TradingView News, "SPCX Stock Makes Musk A Trillionaire Again", October 5, 2026. Link
- Benzinga, "Elon Musk is a Trillionaire Again Thanks to SpaceX Stock", October 5, 2026. Link
Read More on Depth Grid
- Anthropic Lost $42B. The Real Number Is $8B.
- The Real AI Chip Bottleneck: CoWoS Packaging
- The AI Chip Market Everyone Forgot: Robots That Don't Talk
- OpenAI Just Refused to Ship Its Own Flagship Model
- Nvidia Built a Kill Switch AI Agents Can't Touch
Depth Grid News Desk | depthgrid.in
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