SpaceX shares rose about 8% on Monday, reaching levels not seen since the company's June market debut. The share-price surge pushed Elon Musk's net worth back above the $1 trillion threshold — Forbes's real-time billionaire tracker lists his net worth at $1.03 trillion, reflecting his Tesla and SpaceX holdings.
What triggered the rise?
The immediate catalyst was an analysis published by Morgan Stanley on Sunday. The investment bank's analysts deemed SpaceX undervalued at current levels and set a $300 price target, implying roughly 75% upside from Monday's $171.09 close. Morgan Stanley cited several reasons for its buy recommendation:
- AI-related product development;
- progress in the Starship program;
- new cloud-services contracts.
The analysts recommended that investors consider buying shares before the next Starship test flight and the company's third-quarter earnings release.
Recent operations and revenue
The stock's momentum was further supported by a string of successful SpaceX missions over the past weekend, including a crewed NASA flight to the International Space Station and the deployment of Google's AI chips into orbit.
SpaceX's AI business has also strengthened following last year's xAI acquisition and the more recent Cursor deal. Although SpaceX's in-house Grok model has not matched the leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic, the company earns substantial revenue by leasing computing capacity to customers such as Google and Anthropic.
According to FedScout data, SpaceX has generated more than $12.7 billion in revenue so far from contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Political links and public appearances
The article notes that Elon Musk has leveraged his ties to the Trump administration: the Pentagon on Wednesday named Musk as co-lead of Project Meridian, a program aimed at mapping future weapons, technologies and military capabilities.
While SpaceX shares climbed, Musk did not attend a New York City council hearing on artificial intelligence regulation where industry leaders were questioned; representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta were present. Councilmember Shekar Krishnan highlighted at the hearing that AI has come to dominate the economy, inflating company valuations, using public space for data centers, and increasing the wealth of AI CEOs.
Why this matters
Morgan Stanley's price target combined with SpaceX's recent operational activity on both commercial and defense fronts has drawn investor attention. The stock's rise directly affects major shareholders — including Elon Musk — and feeds into broader political and market scrutiny.
(This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI tool; the final content was edited and verified by our journalist.)
