Short Sellers Tread Carefully Around SpaceX's $1.75 Trillion IPO as Musk's Record Deters Bets
Updated
Updated · Reuters · Jun 9
Short Sellers Tread Carefully Around SpaceX's $1.75 Trillion IPO as Musk's Record Deters Bets
3 articles · Updated · Reuters · Jun 9
Summary
$1.75 trillion SpaceX debut is drawing caution rather than aggressive bearish bets, even though investors widely view the company as richly valued and a natural short target.
A 56 price-to-revenue multiple, a float of less than 5%, and likely early index buying could make shares hard and expensive to borrow, pushing some bears to wait until post-lockup shares become available.
Elon Musk's history also looms large: Tesla shorts have lost $27 billion since June 2021, and Musk has repeatedly battled and mocked prominent investors betting against his companies.
The hesitation fits a broader hostile backdrop for short sellers, with Goldman Sachs' most-shorted index up 29% this year and meme-stock style squeezes still shaping risk calculations.
SpaceX is set to go public on June 12, 2026, listing on Nasdaq as SPCX with an initial valuation of $1.75 trillion and possible post-IPO value reaching $2 trillion. The IPO is an all-primary offering, meaning all proceeds will go directly to SpaceX to support its ambitious projects and expansion, rather than to existing shareholders. Led by Goldman Sachs and a major banking syndicate, this historic debut comes as SpaceX reports strong revenue but also significant losses due to heavy investment in future technologies. The structure and scale of this IPO highlight both the company’s growth ambitions and the risks for investors.