Short Sellers Pocket $8.7 Billion as SpaceX Shares Fall Below IPO Price
Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price
Short sellers are sitting on a massive $8.7 billion paper profit as SpaceX stock slides below its initial public offering price of $135. Despite a post-IPO high of $225.64, the aerospace giant's shares have struggled amid concerns over debt-funded AI spending. With nearly half of the free float borrowed, bears have aggressively added to their positions, turning a volatile market into a lucrative opportunity for those betting against the company.
SpaceX has been a rollercoaster for the short sellers, and it has ended up firmly in their favor.
- jacobgold
I completely understood the idea of Starlink and expected that it would be successful and useful, which it is. I've worked in data centers for decades now, and I am incredibly skeptical of the "data centers in space" sales pitch. It seems like an actual scam.
Data centers submerged in the ocean or placed in the desert seem much more promising. But I have only an enthusiast's understanding of rockets and physics, so I'm genuinely open-minded to the possibility.
Is there anyone credible who thinks this is a plausible pathway for SpaceX to make huge amounts of profit?
- zugi
SpaceX has accomplished spectacular things in reusable launch vehicles and space-based networking. It will soon restore the heavy launch capability that the US lost when it retired the Saturn V in the 1970s, but in an affordable and sustainable manner. SpaceX is almost single-handedly keeping the US ahead in space.
I'm bullish on SpaceX as a company in terms of technical accomplishment.
Buying SPCX would make sense at about 1/4 of its IPO price. The IPO price and subsequent rise was inflated via hype and artificial supply restriction, i.e. publicly selling just 4% of the total company ownership.
- londons_explore
Insiders who have locked up stocks but still want to sell could presumably just short the stock and take out a loan secured on the stock to get the financial effects of selling, without actually selling...
I wonder if that's what's happening with ~$1T of stocks currently locked up...
- W-Stool
If you make money shorting a stock, who do you make money from?
- ChrisArchitect
[dupe] Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938001
- tsoukase
I like Elon so much because of one reason: his multi trillion business adds completely new values without taking a single cent away from small retailers and owners, as new big corps do through various legit and not so ways. In contrast, Bezos has closed innumerable stores and every tech giant killed competition in online services. Name it socialism for the poor, but I don't care about his success as long as it doesn't interfere with other's business.
His EV was successful, his social media/AI OK but his space data center will fail and from now on he sells hype, a very fancy, trendy, sexy -name it- and expensive hype. Laws of physics don't allow it to be viable. We have a joke that originally applied to politicians and now to him: you can fool one for a long time, you can fool many for a short time, but you can't fool many for a long time.
- nikolay
Well, that's a market economy, so deal with it!
- godwinson__4-8
Interesting as some very prominent short sellers had publicly indicated they were not going to attempt this given the stock's "meme" potential and the "cult of Elon". Seems to have happened anyway. Good for those short sellers that committed. It's easy to speculate. Actually risking the bet when the market has a history of being highly irrational when it comes to Elon is another thing entirely. And the insiders haven't even been allowed to offload yet...