SpaceX vaults past Amazon’s market value, briefly topping Microsoft

SpaceX roared past Amazon’s market valuation on Tuesday ⁠and briefly topped that of Microsoft, rapidly scaling the list of the world’s most valuable companies on a topsy-turvy trading day fuelled by frenzied action in the firm’s newly listed option contracts.

SpaceX shares rose 4.8 per cent to close at US$201.80, giving Elon Musk’s company a market value of roughly US$2.655 trillion – some US$800 billion more than its value when it sold its record initial public offering last week and about US$10 billion more than that of Amazon, until Tuesday the fifth-largest US-listed firm by market value.

Shares surged early on Tuesday as investors bet on Musk’s sprawling empire that spans ‌rockets to AI, even though the stock carries a higher valuation than the other trillion-dollar behemoths.

The stock is expected to enjoy additional demand in coming weeks as it joins major indexes. Even so, selling was strong in the afternoon, with SpaceX shares giving back most of the gains that at one point took them as high as US$225.64.

“It’s a US$2.5 trillion company, but it certainly feels like one of those meme stocks, the way it’s trading,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading.

“We’ve seen momentum in the past; they just tend to run and you have to be very, very careful with these types of names.”