Musk's SpaceX continues surge above $135 IPO price as Vietnam comes onboard

An Elon Musk victory lap could be on the horizon as SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) backed its first close above its $135 IPO price for the first time in a while with news that it will help Vietnam’s VinSpace launch its first satellites in 2027. 

The Tuesday announcement puts Musk’s rocket firm solidly in another country’s space ambitions after the ruling communist party named space technology a national strategic priority for the first time in 2024. Vietnam sent its batch of satellites to orbit in 2008 with VINASAT-1.

SPCX rises above water after rough month

SpaceX is setting up for its strongest run in weeks as its SPCX stock closed Monday trading at $138.74, up 4.2% for the session. 

The climb is the latest round on a rollercoaster ride that started since SPCX opened at $150 after being priced at $135 on June 12. It touched an intraday high of $225.64 on June 16, then slid to a low near $105 in early August. 

The Monday surge topped off the biggest single-day jump the stock posted on Friday, August 7, when SPCX gained roughly 16% in a single session.

The upward ride persisted even as public float more than doubled as 911.5 million previously restricted SPCX shares became eligible to trade on August 6. 

Why did SpaceX’s stock crash before?

Analysts linked SpaceX’s dip more to skepticism about its spending than sales. SpaceX revenue in the second quarter was up 92% to of $7.8 billion, pushed by more than 12 million paying Starlink subscribers. 

However, the $18.4 billion AI capital expenditure bill for the quarter meant the company had to hold a $541 million net loss. Musk told investors on the August 4 earnings call that the firm is “building AI compute capacity at scale faster than anyone else.” 

Musk has shared his excitement at the $16.8 billion semiconductor complex dubbed “Terafab” that SpaceX and Tesla announced in Grimes County, Texas, on August 6. Investment in that project could reach $119 billion across different phases. 

Ironically, the same AI buildout was the selling point for another class of investors. Argus Research has since upgraded SPCX to Buy with a $160 target.

Vietnam’s only private space firm books a rideshare slot

VinSpace, the space arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, said its first satellites will go up during the second quarter of 2027 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter program, which packs payloads from several customers onto one launch, according to Al Jazeera. The company will build and operate the satellites itself once they reach orbit.

Vu Trong Thu, VinSpace’s chief executive, framed the launch as a proving ground. Putting “domestically developed satellite modules in orbit,” he said in a statement quoted by Al Jazeera, is what turns his engineering team’s research into working missions. He described the SpaceX contract as a step in a longer plan to link Vietnam to “the global space value chain.”

Vingroup set up VinSpace last November with committed capital of 300 billion Vietnamese dong, about $11.5 million. Pham Nhat Vuong, Vietnam’s wealthiest person and Vingroup’s founder, holds a 71% stake, per company filings cited by Al Jazeera. The deal follows Vietnam’s April decision to grant Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-internet service, a license for its first large-scale connectivity trial in the country.

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