SpaceX earnings date opens first insider share sale window

SpaceX shares rose about 5% Tuesday, attempting to end a seven-session slide after the company put its first public earnings report on the calendar. The date matters because it also starts the first window for insiders and other locked-up holders to sell part of their stock.

For retail investors, that lock-up is the key mechanism to watch. A lock-up is a post-IPO restriction that keeps insiders, employees and early backers from selling shares right away, which limits the number of shares trading in the open market.

The first lock-up release is tied to earnings

SpaceX said Monday it will report second-quarter results and host a webcast on Aug. 4, its first earnings update since going public. CNBC reported that the date triggers the company’s unusual staggered lock-up schedule following its record initial public offering in June.

Instead of waiting for the more common 180-day lock-up period to expire, SpaceX structured earlier partial releases. CNBC reported that holders will be allowed to sell 20% of their eligible locked-up shares after the first earnings report, amounting to as many as 911.5 million shares.

Another 10% could become available if SpaceX stock closes at least 30% above its IPO price for five of the 10 trading sessions leading into the report, according to CNBC. SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 a share and raised $85.7 billion, CNBC reported.

The stock has been under pressure since its June debut. CNBC reported that, by Monday’s close, shares had fallen nearly half from the June 16 intraday peak of $225.64 and were down 43% from the record closing price of $211.39 that same day.

Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires Index put Elon Musk’s net worth at about $786 billion on Monday, down from above $1 trillion as of June 12, according to CNBC.

Short sellers have moved in as the float stays tight

CNBC reported that SpaceX has become a frequent target for short sellers, with bearish positioning recently reaching about one-third of the company’s public float. A public float is the portion of a company’s shares available for regular trading.

Short sellers borrow shares and sell them, aiming to buy them back later at a lower price. Because the lock-up keeps much of SpaceX’s stock out of the market for now, a smaller float can make trading more sensitive to changes in demand.

Musk criticized short sellers in a post on X on Monday. “The survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” he wrote.

Launch plans remain in focus

SpaceX planned to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink satellites into low orbit Tuesday after canceling the mission before liftoff Monday. CNBC reported that it was the company’s second scrubbed launch in a week.

The company also plans to launch Starship on Thursday after stopping a mission last week because of an engine ignition failure. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” Musk wrote on X. SpaceX said it was changing the rocket’s propulsion system to address the engine issue.

Investors are watching Starship because the vehicle is tied to SpaceX’s larger business plans. CNBC reported that Starship, the largest rocket ever built or flown, is central to expanding the Starlink satellite internet network and to SpaceX’s obligations under NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028.

Musk has called Starship the “holy grail” of space travel and has said he wants it to be used someday for space tourism and crewed missions to Mars, according to CNBC.

AI contracts and Tesla links add more investor questions

SpaceX investors are also watching its cloud computing business. CNBC reported that SpaceX acquired Musk’s AI venture xAI in February, now called SpaceXAI, and became the owner and operator of data centers and a power plant in Greater Memphis.

Google, Anthropic and Reflection have agreed to rent excess computing capacity from SpaceXAI, CNBC reported. The Wall Street Journal has reported that SpaceX is in talks to provide computing power for the Pentagon’s AI efforts.

Tesla, Musk’s first publicly traded company, is expected to report earnings after Wednesday’s close. CNBC reported that some Tesla investors submitted questions through Say Technologies about potential collaboration with SpaceX on the Terafab chip factory planned for Grimes County, Texas, where Tesla is expected to lead research and development and SpaceX is expected to lead production.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.