SpaceX shares extended their rally this week, climbing more than 10% in a single session and nearly 40% over five trading days, adding roughly $550 billion in market capitalization since August 6. The move has turned one of the most heavily shorted large-cap stocks on the market into one of its sharpest squeezes.
The rally follows a rough start to SpaceX's life as a public company. The stock had fallen more than 50% from its post-IPO peak, bottoming near $104.83 in early August, as early skepticism about the valuation and a wave of insider share unlocks weighed on the price. Short interest data tracked by MarketBeat shows bearish positioning peaked near 34% of float during that decline, with roughly 95% of shares available to borrow out on loan at one point — an unusually crowded short for a stock of SpaceX's size.
What Turned the Trade Around
Two catalysts converged to flip the setup. Around August 6, roughly $100 billion worth of insider shares became eligible for trading under SpaceX's staggered lockup schedule — the first of a series of unlocks that could release as much as $800 billion in shares through October. Rather than triggering the feared supply overhang, the added float appears to have absorbed some of the borrowing pressure that had built up in the stock.
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The bigger driver was SpaceX's first quarterly report as a public company. Revenue came in at $7.81 billion, up 92% year-over-year and well ahead of the $6.93 billion analysts had modeled, while the net loss narrowed to $541 million from just over $1 billion a year earlier. The combination of a beat-and-narrow print with an already stretched short base was enough to force a wave of covering.
Short Interest Has Already Cratered
Short interest has since collapsed from roughly 34% to about 11% of float as bearish positions were forced to cover into the rally, according to S3 Partners data. With SpaceX's market capitalization now near $1.9 trillion, any remaining short covering would unfold at a scale few equity squeezes have matched, though the pace of the move has already slowed as the most exposed positions have been unwound.
