SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) stock showed significant growth on Wednesday, soaring 11% and closing the session at around $148. This is significantly higher than the level at which the stock began trading after its IPO.
SpaceX stock is now roughly 10% above its IPO price of $135 and about 41% above the low reached on August 3rd. Over the past week, the stock has also risen nearly 28%.
The price increase occurred even after Daiwa Capital Markets became more cautious in its assessment of the company's market value. Daiwa lowered its target price for SpaceX stock from $175 to $140, while maintaining a neutral rating.
The new target price was only 0.9% above the closing price of SpaceX stock on August 10th, which was $138.74. Daiwa stated that the lowered valuation is due to the amount of cash SpaceX still needs to spend as it grows. Faster growth may bring in more revenue, but it also requires much more capital to run and expand the business.
Short Sellers Reduce Positions Amid SpaceX's Recovery Following Earnings-Triggered Sell-Off
Short positions in SpaceX stock changed very rapidly. According to estimates by S3 Partners, by Wednesday, the volume of short positions had shrunk to about 11% of the total SpaceX shares available for public trading. Just last week, this figure was as high as 34%.
This largely happened because traders realized it was time to close their short positions as the stock began to recover. Additionally, the expiration of the first major lock-up period for SpaceX stock made more of the company's shares available for trading.
This contributed to an increase in the number of shares in free float, and consequently, the proportion of short positions decreased to a small fraction of the total traded shares.
Ihor Dusaniwsky, Managing Director of Predictive Analytics at S3 Partners, stated that traders wanting to continue betting against the stock are starting to run out of opportunities to replenish their positions.
"Those who wanted to open a short position have run out of resources," said Ihor. "You can only put a certain amount of money into a trade."
The recovery of SpaceX stock has also allowed it to return above the price at which investors first purchased shares during the IPO. At a price of around $148, the stock was trading roughly $13 above the $135 IPO price.
Norwegian Investment Fund Acquired SpaceX, Simultaneously Gaining Much Larger Stakes in Nvidia, Apple, and Tesla
Fresh news also came from Norway. Norges Bank Investment Management, better known as NBIM, reported that it owns about 0.05% of SpaceX shares. In the fund's first-half report, this stake was valued at just over $1.2 billion.
The NBIM investment fund announced its investments in SpaceX on the same day it reported record first-half profits exceeding $184 billion. In the first six months of the year, the fund earned more than 1.75 trillion Norwegian kroner, equivalent to about $184.9 billion.
During this period, the fund's return was 9.4%, driven by the rise in Asian technology company stocks.
"This result is driven by strong stock market returns, especially from Asian technology companies," said Nicolai Tangen, CEO of NBIM.
Norway established this fund in the 1990s to invest proceeds from the country's oil and gas business. Today, its value is about $2.34 trillion, and it holds investments in over 7,000 companies across more than 50 countries. In total, the fund owns roughly 1.5% of the world's publicly listed stocks.
NBIM already had another major investment related to Elon Musk through Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), in which it owns about 1% of shares, reportedly valued at approximately $15.7 billion.
This, however, has not prevented relations between Elon and the fund from becoming increasingly tense over the years.
In 2024, NBIM voted against the proposed $56 billion compensation package for Elon Musk from Tesla. Later, Nicolai invited Elon to a private dinner and to an NBIM conference in Oslo, but Elon declined the invitation.
Subsequently, their personal messages were made public under Norwegian freedom of information laws.
NBIM took the same position again at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting at the end of 2025, voting against another compensation package for Elon that could be worth up to $1 trillion.
"While we highly value the significant contribution made by Mr. Musk through his visionary work, we are concerned about the overall size of the award, its dilutive effect, and the lack of risk mitigation measures for key personnel, which aligns with our views on executive compensation," NBIM stated at the time.
"We will continue to strive for constructive dialogue with Tesla on this and other matters," they added.
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