MarketsJun 15, 2026
Space Sector Stocks Retreat Around SpaceX IPO as Private Funding Climbs
Rhea Lobo
SpaceX raised $85.7B in the largest IPO on record after underwriters exercised their greenshoe option (an underwriter's right to sell additional shares). That topped the initial $75B raise.
The stock's two-day gain surged past 25%. The rest of the space sector didn't share in the wins.
Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, and AST SpaceMobile fell on Friday, as investors sold existing positions to fund SpaceX purchases, according to Barron's.
Fundstrat strategist Hardika Singh wrote that only SpaceX shareholders had benefited from the June rally.
By Monday, the selloff had begun to reverse.
KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Michael Leshok upgraded both Rocket Lab and Firefly to Overweight, setting a price target of $135 for Rocket Lab, implying roughly 23% upside. He set a $50 target for Firefly, implying roughly 47% upside.
Leshok wrote that the selloff was unwarranted and largely systematic, as funds made room for SpaceX.
Retail selling across single stocks hit its heaviest level since November 2023 around SpaceX's debut, with pressure concentrated in semiconductor names including Micron and Sandisk, according to Vanda Research. Retail buying of space stocks simultaneously climbed to its highest level since December 2024, per the same data.
Venture funding for US space-tech companies excluding SpaceX rose to $7.1B in 2025, up from $2.5B in 2024, according to PitchBook — the strongest haul for the sector since 2021.
Tom Mueller, a former senior SpaceX executive who recently closed a $500M raise for his in-space mobility startup, Impulse Space, said space was getting hot before the IPO was announced and had since been supercharged.
Still, risks are mounting. Several space companies went public via blank-check mergers in 2021 and badly underperformed. Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy less than 18 months after its SPAC deal closed.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called SpaceX's debut "an important watershed moment for the broader tech sector," predicting it could accelerate IPOs for Anthropic and OpenAI.
KeyBanc argues those macro drivers have only accelerated and aren't contingent on SpaceX's public-market status.
