SpaceX shares rose about 1.5% to $173.66 by midday Tuesday, extending a sharp rally that has pushed the stock back above its IPO price.
SpaceX has taken off in recent sessions, posting gains of more than 7% on both Friday and Monday.
The rally also boosted CEO Elon Musk’s net worth to more than $1 trillion.
What’s driving SpaceX’s recent bull run?
SpaceX made a historic public debut as the largest IPO by proceeds, raising $75 billion in June.
Shares initially surged as high as $225 before a correction set in.
The stock then spent much of late summer and September trading in the $140s and $150s before breaking higher.
Morgan Stanley provided a major catalyst for the latest leg of the rally, with analyst Adam Jonas reiterating an “Overweight” rating and maintaining a $300 price target.
Jonas described the shares as unusually cheap when adjusted for expected growth, arguing that the market is still underestimating SpaceX’s longer-term earnings potential.
Morgan Stanley’s sum-of-the-parts valuation assigns $8 per share to external launch operations, $118 to Starlink connectivity, $8 to consumer AI tools such as Grok and $165 to AI enterprise services.
Goldman Sachs is adding to the bullish Wall Street case.
Analyst Eric Sheridan raised Goldman’s 12-month price target to $230 from $220 while maintaining a “Buy” rating.
Sheridan also raised Goldman’s forecasts for SpaceX’s AI business across compute capacity, revenue and margins.
He said AI estimates still looked relatively conservative over the next six to 18 months, assuming there is no broader correction across the AI sector.
Successful missions boosting sentiment
Operational execution has also strengthened the bullish case.
Last week, SpaceX completed a full orbital test of Starship and deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites despite an engine outage during ascent.
The company later launched four astronauts to the International Space Station in less than eight hours while also deploying Google’s Project Suncatcher, an experimental payload designed to test AI chips in orbit.
The missions added to the positive operational backdrop as investors looked ahead to further Starship milestones.
The AI factor helping the SpaceX stock
SpaceX is also benefiting from the expansion of its artificial intelligence business, which it inherited when it acquired Musk’s xAI in February 2026 and later expanded through its acquisition of Cursor.
The company’s AI strategy is increasingly focused not only on models such as Grok but also on providing computing capacity to major technology companies.
SpaceX has been expanding its ability to monetize that infrastructure through agreements involving customers including Google and Anthropic, helping explain why AI has become a much larger part of the valuation debate.
Goldman’s latest note reinforces that point, with Sheridan arguing that Street estimates for the AI segment remain conservative over the next six to 18 months.
Defense adds another leg to the story
SpaceX’s growing defense business is another part of the investment case.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently appointed Musk as a co-lead of Project Meridian, a Pentagon initiative examining future warfare and emerging military capabilities.
SpaceX has also increasingly expanded its government and defense business.
The company generated about $5.9 billion in revenue from US government agencies in 2025 and said it had been awarded more than $6 billion in multi-year US government contracts for Starshield.
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