Why SpaceX stock is sliding another 3% today

SpaceX SPCX shares face another test next week as about 320 million additional shares become eligible for trading.

The stock has gained around 22% in the week since more than 900 million shares became eligible for sale.

Rather than falling as investors had widely expected, SpaceX shares rose 6.1% that day and jumped around 15% in the following session.

SpaceX shares were down 3% at $137.52 in early trading Friday.

The stock closed around 3% lower on Thursday at $141.29, slightly above its $135 IPO price but about 30% below its June 16 closing high of $201.80.

Second lockup expiration approaches

Lockup agreements prevent company insiders and early investors from selling shares for a set period after an initial public offering.

Once those restrictions expire, additional shares can enter the market, potentially weighing on the stock if demand does not keep pace with the increased supply.

The first major tranche of more than 900 million SpaceX shares became eligible for sale on August 6.

The stock's subsequent gains defied expectations of a sharp selloff.

About 320 million additional shares are expected to become eligible for trading on August 20.

That could extend the volatility that has characterized SpaceX shares since their market debut.

SpaceX began trading on the Nasdaq in June after raising about $85.7 billion in what was described as the largest IPO on record.

Its shares were priced at $135 and climbed as high as $225.64 during the first week of trading.

Cursor acquisition adds to AI focus

SpaceX has completed its $60 billion acquisition of Anysphere, the artificial-intelligence startup behind Cursor.

The deal became effective August 14, according to a regulatory filing, two months after SpaceX formally announced its agreement to acquire the company.

The acquisition is intended to strengthen SpaceX's efforts to develop AI tools for coding and other software-development tasks.

Cursor, Anysphere's AI coding assistant, launched in 2023 and was designed to help programmers write and debug code more efficiently.

The company became one of the fastest-growing startups and a major player in the tech industry’s “vibe coding” trend, as demand increased for tools that can build software based on prompts to a chatbot.

As part of the transaction, Cursor’s co-founders will become billionaires, while the startup’s team will gain access to SpaceX’s stockpile of advanced AI chips.

“We will have access to the largest fleet of GPUs in the world, giving us the compute to build stronger models that are also more economical to run,” Cursor said in a blog post Friday.

Mizuho sees upside from Grok

Mizuho analyst Brett Linzey reiterated an Outperform rating and a $200 price target on SpaceX shares.

Linzey said the new Grok 4.6 model now offers “frontier-level performance,” bringing it closer to leading AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Mizuho reviewed Grok’s performance across coding, multi-turn agentic reasoning and complex mathematics.

The firm said the results suggest Grok is closing the gap with other frontier models.

That progress could help SpaceXAI expand Grok beyond consumer applications and attract more enterprise customers, according to Linzey.

Lower pricing could also make Grok more attractive to businesses, while Cursor provides SpaceXAI with a distribution channel reaching a large developer audience.

Linzey believes the model’s improving performance could help SpaceXAI gain market share from rival AI platforms.