Retail investors have invested more in SpaceX stock than in the entire Mag7 combined

During the first three trading days for SpaceX shares (Friday, Monday, and Tuesday), retail investors’ net purchases of shares in Elon Musk’s aerospace and AI company totaled $369.8 million. This is more than retail investors collectively invested during those same days in shares of all the “Magnificent 7” companies, according to data from Vanda Research, MarketWatch reports.

By comparison, during the same period, net purchases of Nvidia shares—once a favorite among retail investors—totaled $88.2 million. Meanwhile, retail investors mostly sold shares of other issuers popular among retail investors—Tesla and Apple.

If we add up the purchases of shares in tech giants (Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta—excluding Tesla and Apple, whose stocks saw a “full-scale sell-off” at the end of last week and the beginning of this week) and the two most popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the indices, — the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and the Invesco QQQ Trust Series — the combined total will be roughly equal to the amount invested in SpaceX alone, researchers found.

“[The IPO] of SpaceX did not turn out to be a tide that lifted all boats. The inflow of retail capital into other AI-related stocks turned out to be more modest than might have been expected,” commented a spokesperson for Vanda Research. “We’re seeing concentrated interest in a single company with a limited spillover effect,” he added.

The buzz surrounding SpaceX is also notable because it is unfolding against a backdrop of general caution among retail investors. According to Vanda Research, net purchases of individual stocks by retail investors fell last week to their lowest level since March 2020. Instead of specific stocks, investors preferred ETFs, which provide broad diversification across the market. This week, retail investor activity has increased compared to last week, but a significant portion of that activity is concentrated on SpaceX, MarketWatch notes.

SpaceX shares traded at $193.33 each on Wednesday—more than 40% above the offering price of $135—but during the previous day’s session, they closed in the red for the first time since the IPO, losing nearly 5%.

SpaceX's IPO on June 12 became the largest in stock market history. Taking into account the underwriters’ exercise of their greenshoe option, the company raised $85.7 billion—during the IPO, the company was valued at $1.77 trillion, making Musk the first trillionaire in history. In the first three trading days, SpaceX’s market capitalization surged to nearly $3 trillion, briefly allowing the aerospace company to surpass Amazon and Microsoft in market value and enter the top four most valuable companies in the United States. However, SpaceX’s stock price growth later slowed. As of this writing, according to Yahoo Finance, SpaceX’s market capitalization stands at $2.5 trillion.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor