Thousands of employees and early investors at SpaceX will be able to sell part of their holdings for the first time since Elon Musk’s rocket firm became a publicly traded entity with the expiration of its initial major IPO lockup.
Lockup agreements restrict stock sales by executives and other “insiders” for one to four years. Once the restriction is lifted, insiders may begin selling a portion of their restricted shares.
Around 911 million restricted shares, valued at over $100 Billion at today’s share price, will be made available for trading on Thursday. There is no obligation to sell any of the newly unlocked shares.
Although the lockup was an important milestone for SpaceX, it came during a very challenging time for the firm’s stock performance.
After SpaceX raised capital through a blockbuster IPO in June, the stock fell more than 25 percent from its $135 per share offering price due to investor reaction to high costs associated with the development of artificial intelligence (AI) at the company and concern regarding the ability of the firm to achieve profits.
Many investors who purchase stocks expect a strong profit potential and therefore they react poorly when a firm begins investing significant amounts of money into non-core areas such as research and development.
Market analysts anticipate that the release of these millions of shares could create temporary volatility in the short term based upon the number of insiders who choose to sell their stock.
Other analysts feel that the staggered nature of the releases will prevent a rush of additional stock onto the open markets which could further exacerbate any downward pressure on the price of the stock.
Subsequent batches of insider shares are expected to become available for sale late this month and over the course of next year.
2026-08-06 19:55:00
