SpaceX shares rose back above the company's IPO price on Wednesday after a tame inflation report and the disclosure from Norway's sovereign fund about a stake in the company.
The country's fund, worth about $2.3 trillion, made the disclosure after reporting a record half-year profit of almost $185 billion.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) currently invests in over 7,000 companies across 50 countries, according to CNBC.
"The result is driven by good returns in the equity market, particularly from Asian technology stocks," said NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen.
The fund's portfolio is more than two-third equities, including Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft. It also disclosed a 0.05% stake in SpaceX, valued at more than $1.2 billion. It also holds a 1% stake in Tesla.
However, CNBC noted, Elon Musk's relationship with NBIM has been fraught. In 2024 the fund voted against a $56 billion pay package for Musk from Tesla. Musk later reportedly declined an invitation from Tangen for dinner and a conference run by NBIM.
"When I ask you for a favor, which I very rarely do, and you decline, then you should not ask me for one until you've done something above nothing to make amends," Musk wrote back then.
NBIM also voted against a trillion-dollar pay at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in 2025. "While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr. Musk's visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk- consistent with our views on executive compensation," NBIM said back then.
Regardless, SpaceX stocks are climbing on Wednesday, also buoyed by a tame inflation report in the U.S. They are now above the IPO price of $135.
The company led by Elon Musk had already soared more than 15% on Friday after overcoming two major hurdles that many investors expected would send the stock tumbling: the company's first quarterly earnings report as a public company and the largest lock-up expiration since its June initial public offering.
Last week, however, began on an uncertain note. On Tuesday, SpaceX reported second quarter results that exceeded Wall Street expectations, with revenue and adjusted EBITDA coming in well above analyst forecasts. However, the stronger-than-expected financial performance failed to reassure investors worried about the company's rapidly rising spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
On Thursday, approximately 911.5 million previously restricted shares became eligible for trading in the company's first and largest lock-up expiration. The newly unlocked shares represented roughly 43% more stock than the 638.9 million shares originally offered in the IPO, more than doubling SpaceX's public float.
The freely tradable portion of outstanding shares increased from 4.9% to 11.8%, creating concerns that early investors and insiders would rush to sell, flooding the market with additional supply and pushing prices even lower.
Instead, the opposite happened. SpaceX shares gained 6.1% on Thursday, surprising many analysts who had anticipated heavy selling pressure. The stock extended those gains on Friday, getting close to the IPO price on Friday and climbing back above on Monday. However, it is still far below its high of almost $202 from shortly after its debut in June.
