SpaceX passes Amazon in market value after three-day rally

SpaceX SPCX has overtaken Amazon to become the world's fifth-most valuable publicly traded company, capping a remarkable rally that has followed the company's record-breaking stock market debut.

Shares of Elon Musk's rocket and artificial intelligence company rose for a third consecutive session on Tuesday, lifting its market capitalization to approximately $2.66 trillion and narrowly surpassing Amazon's market value of roughly $2.65 trillion.

At one point during the trading session, SpaceX also briefly exceeded Microsoft's valuation before surrendering some of those gains later in the day.

The stock finished Tuesday at $201.80, up 4.8%, after reaching an intraday high of $225.64.

Since pricing its initial public offering at $135 per share, SpaceX stock has climbed roughly 50%, making it one of the strongest post-IPO performances in recent market history.

Record IPO fuels historic market-cap surge

SpaceX's ascent has been driven by strong investor enthusiasm for the company's ambitions in space technology, artificial intelligence, and long-term projects such as Mars colonization.

The company's initial public offering raised $85.7 billion, making it the largest stock market listing ever.

The rally has also significantly boosted Elon Musk's personal wealth, with reports noting that the listing helped make him the world's first trillionaire.

Investor demand has remained intense since the debut. The stock gained 19% on its first day of trading and added another 19% on Monday before extending gains again on Tuesday.

According to market data, Monday's rally alone added approximately $433 billion to SpaceX's market capitalization, marking the second-largest one-day increase in value ever recorded by a US company, behind only a larger gain achieved by Nvidia last year.

Analysts, however, have questioned whether the pace of appreciation can be sustained given the uncertainty surrounding the company's future earnings profile.

Cursor acquisition strengthens AI ambitions

Investor enthusiasm received another boost after SpaceX confirmed it would acquire artificial intelligence coding startup Cursor in an all-stock transaction valued at $60 billion.

Cursor's parent company, Anysphere, develops AI-powered coding tools that automate software development tasks.

The companies have been working together since April, when SpaceX secured the right either to purchase Cursor for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for the work completed through the partnership.

Announcing the partnership earlier this year, SpaceX said: "The combination of Cursor's leading product and distribution to expert software engineers with SpaceX's million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer will allow us to build the world's most useful models."

The acquisition is expected to close during the third quarter of 2026.

Cursor has experienced rapid growth.

According to Forbes, its annualized revenue exceeded $4 billion in June, up from $3 billion in late April. The company counts major customers including Stripe, Adobe, and Nvidia.

Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has described Cursor as his "favourite enterprise AI service".

Valuation debate continues

Despite SpaceX's soaring valuation, the company's financial performance remains significantly smaller than that of Amazon.

Amazon generated $30.3 billion in profit during the first quarter of 2026 and reported $716.9 billion in revenue during 2025.

By comparison, SpaceX reported a loss of $4.3 billion and generated revenue of $18.67 billion.

The disparity highlights the extent to which investors are valuing SpaceX based on future growth opportunities rather than current financial results.

Supporters point to the company's expanding businesses, including reusable rocket launches, Starlink satellite internet services, AI infrastructure, and emerging artificial intelligence initiatives through xAI.

Market observers also note that SpaceX's public float remains relatively small.

Only about 5% of outstanding shares are currently available for public trading, while additional insider shares are scheduled to become eligible for sale beginning in August.