SpaceX vs. the "Magnificent Seven": How the New Nasdaq-100 Member Stacks Up

Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) isn't part of the "Magnificent Seven" group of stocks, but its total market value of $1.48 trillion puts it ahead of components Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

The other components, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), are the five most valuable companies in the world.

They're all tech giants, and they lead the Nasdaq-100, an index of top tech stocks that's a bellwether of market sentiment toward technology and artificial intelligence (AI).

SpaceX was officially added to the index on July 7 after the rules were changed to fast-track its addition. Since then, the S&P 500 is down 2%, the Nasdaq-100 is down 7%, and SpaceX stock is down 25%.

Image source: Getty Images.

Most of the Magnificent Seven companies have released earnings recently, with Nvidia scheduled for Aug. 26. SpaceX is on track to report on Aug. 4.

Elon Musk and SpaceX's leadership team banked on raising $75 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), but because demand was so strong, underwriters exercised their overallotment, and SpaceX raised $86 billion.

That brought the company's total value at IPO to $2 trillion, implying the market believes SpaceX belongs right up there with the world's other largest tech powerhouses.

But do the fundamentals back that up? Let's see how SpaceX stacks up next to the Magnificent Seven stocks.

Is SpaceX just getting started?

The first thing to note is that SpaceX is a much smaller company by sales than the other companies on the list. Since it has a similar value, though, the obvious conclusion is that it must be much more expensive -- and it is.

Data sources: Company filings, YCharts, Yahoo Finance. Growth is year over year. TTM = trailing-12-month.

SpaceX trades at a wildly high valuation, but it's not growing faster than its large counterparts. Investors believe, though, that SpaceX represents the future and that it has massive growth and earnings potential. Goldman Sachs analysts expect AI revenue to increase 100-fold by 2030, and Morgan Stanley analysts forecast $3.4 trillion in SpaceX revenue by 2040.

Wall Street expects $39 billion in 2026 sales and $73 billion next year, which implies an 87% increase, similar to Nvidia's recent growth rates.

Cash spend and profits

SpaceX is also losing money at this stage, while all of the other Magnificent Seven stocks are profitable. Although the Starlink satellite broadband business is posting positive net income, total net loss in the 2026 first quarter was more than $4 billion.

I would note that Elon Musk's other public company, Tesla, was also unprofitable for a long time, so he does have a track record of achieving profitability from a money-losing start.

Wall Street is already expecting a profit for the third quarter, with an average analyst consensus earnings-per-share (EPS) target of $0.08. It expects a $0.55 loss per share for the full year, followed by positive EPS of around $0.65 in 2027.

Long-term opportunity in AI

Since its acquisition of xAI earlier this year, SpaceX has three businesses: rocket launching, Starlink satellite broadband, and AI. Many investors are excited about the space aspect of the company's business, but the company sees its biggest opportunities in AI.

SpaceX pegs its addressable market at $28.5 trillion, with $26.5 trillion in AI. It recently acquired the fast-growing AI coding company Cursor, which should add a significant revenue stream to the company's total. Investors should find out exactly how much in the quarterly update on Aug. 4.

However, most of the "Magnificent Seven" stocks have similar AI opportunities, so SpaceX doesn't stand out in that regard. They each have their own take on it, with Apple's being the iPhone and devices, and Nvidia's being the chips and hardware that power AI development. On that score, SpaceX might be competitive, but it's too early to say.

Its large language model (LLM), Grok, is widely used, but popular rivals include OpenAI's ChatGPT, Alphabet's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude.

There are ways SpaceX stacks up well against the Magnificent Seven, but one reason the others are so magnificent is that they've proven themselves over time. SpaceX falls short there, and the market will evaluate it over time. If it doesn't meet the bar, it will eventually fade way back behind the tech giants.

Jennifer Saibil has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Goldman Sachs Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.