'The cult of Elon': SpaceX investors grapple with volatility amid big swings

This report is from this week's The Tech Download newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here. Rollercoaster. That's probably the most accurate word to describe SpaceX's opening two weeks as a public company. The stock surged for several successive days following a record-breaking IPO, briefly overtaking both Amazon and Microsoft in terms of market cap and rising more than 60% on the initial share offering price of $135. But the good times weren't set to last. Daily drops of 5% and 4% were followed by a 16% slump as jitters crept into the market. Steadier days followed, with single point moves in either direction. The volatility underscores the whipsaw nature of a story-driven stock. Lofty sci-fi ambitions, huge coverage in the * ahem * media and a founder with a cult-like following whipped up a frenzy of excitement around the company. "Most stocks trade based on how their multiple of earnings compares to other comparable stocks," Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, told me. "Elon Musk companies don't really do that." Musk's ventures instead trade on expectations, he added. " Tesla trades more on [autonomous driving service] Robotaxi and [humanoid robot] Optimus than they do on selling cars, and SpaceX trades more on the promise of Mars exploration, or at least data centers in space," said Luria. A video displays Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, after the company's initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on June 12, 2026. …