6th July 2026

Rathbones Asset Management: American postcard: SpaceX, stock tips from bellhops, and the AI gold rush

In his latest American postcard, David Harrison looks past the spectacle of one of the largest-ever stock raises to ask what’s really moving markets. Follow the money pouring from AI model owners and hyperscalers to the chipmakers, suppliers and industrial firms standing in front of an enormous wave of spending.

IPO fever had set in among investors at the Baird Conference in New York, held just before SpaceX went public in mid-June.

Investors from all around America and the world had flown in to meet scores of mostly mid-cap company management teams to kick the tyres, reassess some ideas and discover new ones. Much of the coffee chat was about developments outside the conference centre, however. With the $75 billion SpaceX IPO looming, many investors I spoke with lamented the smaller companies they were selling to make room for an allocation to the newest hyperscaler to join the public markets herd. 

The attitude in the room seemed to align with the wider feelings about the largest-ever stock raise. Launching on 12 June, it attracted more than $350bn of investor orders, almost five times oversubscribed. After the initial raise, investment bank underwriters were able to sell an extra $11bn of shares using overallotment rights.

Initially issued at $135 a share, SpaceX has had a wild flight so far. It initially opened at $150, closed the first day at $161, and breached $200 two days later. It’s down almost 25% since then, and back in the low-$150s. So up from first issue but down from its initial listing price. 

The wider S&P 500 has accompanied SpaceX’s share price descent – albeit not in a parabolic manner. This has led some to posit that it is the cause of the wider market’s wobble. But I think the real reason is much more mundane: you just have to follow the money.

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