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SpaceX, the company Pretoria-born billionaire Elon Musk founded in 2002, closed 6.42 percent higher on Thursday, clearing $150 a share and restoring a market value above $2 trillion for the first time since early July.
The stock rose more than 7 percent during the session, rejoining Amazon, Taiwan Semiconductor and Microsoft in the $2 trillion bracket roughly three months after its Nasdaq debut. Tesla, also led by Musk, gained 5.42 percent on the same day.
What moved it
Two things converged. A broad technology rally lifted the Nasdaq 100 and nearly every S&P 500 sector, helped by Nvidia's confirmation that it will acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, its second-largest purchase after the $20 billion Groq asset deal.
Separately, Oppenheimer raised its price target on SpaceX to $280 from $250 on Wednesday, keeping an Outperform rating. Analyst Timothy Horan pointed to a vertically integrated AI platform, writing in a note accessed by TheFly that the company can build infrastructure faster than rivals and use that infrastructure and its data to improve its own models faster.
The Tesla link
Tesla shares climbed ahead of an event showcasing its Cybercab robotaxi, a project in which SpaceX has an operational role. Tesla is integrating Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet network, into the Cybercab fleet, intended to prevent connectivity dropouts that could strand autonomous vehicles and to support in-cabin 4K streaming.
Where the Street sits
Aggregated data from Koyfin puts the average 12-month price target at $222.32, implying about 48.5 percent upside from Thursday's close. Oppenheimer's $280 sits well above that. Bernstein initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $239 target, later raised to $248, citing Starship as the most critical driver of valuation.
Retail sentiment did not follow the price. Stocktwits recorded bearish sentiment on low message volume during the rally.
SpaceX reported revenue of $7.81 billion in its first quarter as a public company, up 92 percent, with a net loss of $541 million. Its AI segment grew 247 percent to $2.6 billion. The company has guided to a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by the end of 2026.
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