Elon Musk's SpaceX has surpassed Amazon in market valuation to become the world's fifth most valuable company, days after its stock market debut. The milestone represents a remarkable achievement for the rocket manufacturer and satellite operator, which has captured investor enthusiasm following its initial public offering.
SpaceX shares rose 13 percent when trading opened on the Nasdaq index on Tuesday. At one point, the company's valuation climbed to $2.97 trillion, leapfrogging Amazon's $2.65 trillion valuation. By the close of trading, shares had moderated to approximately 5 percent gains, with SpaceX valued at just above $2.66 trillion. The company floated at $135 per share on Friday and has appreciated roughly 50 percent since the offering.
The surge in valuation comes as SpaceX announced a major acquisition. The company agreed to purchase Cursor, an artificial intelligence-powered coding application, for $60 billion. The deal represents SpaceX's effort to strengthen its AI capabilities through its xAI division, which Musk established as the parent company overseeing SpaceX, the social media platform X, and satellite internet provider Starlink.
SpaceX's financial performance reveals significant losses despite the market enthusiasm. The company lost $4.9 billion in 2025 on revenues of $18.7 billion. This contrasts sharply with Amazon, which posted revenues of $717 billion and net income of $78 billion during the same period.
Analysts view the Cursor acquisition strategically. Harrison Rolfes of PitchBook noted that owning a tool trusted by professional developers provides a faster path to enterprise AI revenue than competing in the underlying model development race. Matt Britzman, a senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, called it a positive move given Cursor's impressive coding models relative to cost.
The acquisition addresses a fundamental challenge for Cursor. While the startup has attracted over 1 million users with its AI coding capabilities, it has been hampered by limited access to computing power. SpaceX's position as a datacentre owner allows it to provide the infrastructure Cursor needs to scale operations.
Gil Luria of DA Davidson suggested the purchase improves SpaceX's competitive standing against Anthropic and OpenAI in the frontier AI model race. He emphasised that Grok, SpaceX's AI model, requires a coding component for enterprise customers to use alongside rivals' offerings like Claude Code and Codex.
The acquisition will be funded through stock rather than IPO proceeds and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman noted that SpaceX's high stock valuation creates an advantage, requiring fewer shares to complete large acquisitions.
Musk's ownership stake in SpaceX has made him the world's first trillionaire, with his fortune estimated between $1.1 trillion and $1.3 trillion, according to various valuations.