SpaceX has become the most shorted large public company in the United States, with bears wagering more than $26 billion against Elon Musk's rocket and satellite firm. Key Points: SpaceX short
SpaceX has become the most shorted large public company in the United States, with bears wagering more than $26 billion against Elon Musk's rocket and satellite firm.
- SpaceX short interest has reached roughly a third of the company's tradable float, the largest such position among major U.S. stocks.
- Short sellers have built billions in paper gains since the stock peaked in June, though estimates vary widely between data providers.
- Quarterly earnings on Aug. 4 and the first post-IPO lockup expiry two days later stand as the next tests.
Shares have lost roughly half their value over the past month, and the slide turned a celebrated Nasdaq debut into one of the year's most crowded bearish trades. Figures from S3 Partners put short interest near 35% of the tradable float, the largest such position among big American companies. Bears have booked about $7.3 billion in mark-to-market gains since the stock started trading on the exchange in June.
Only Tesla has handed short sellers a bigger profit this year. That stands out because bearish funds have otherwise lost more than $200 billion across the market in 2026.
Ortex Technologies, a separate data firm, counted nearly 196 million shares sold short in late July, or about 31% of the free float. Its estimate of unrealized profit for those trades runs to $15.5 billion, well above the S3 figure. Ortex also found that roughly 49% of the float sat on loan, and it believes most of those borrowed shares support active short positions.
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Musk has answered the bearish crowd on social media, telling followers the "survival probability" for investors who hold large short positions in the company is very low. He has feuded with traders betting against his companies for years.
Ihor Dusaniwsky, a managing director at S3, said the buildup reflects persistent doubt about whether SpaceX can justify its valuation. The company still carries a market value of roughly $1.5 trillion. Peter Hillerberg, who co-founded Ortex, said the bears kept adding to positions the whole way down rather than taking profits, a pattern he called unusual.
Two events next week will test both sides of the trade. SpaceX reports quarterly results on Aug. 4, its first as a public company, and the earliest lockup restrictions lift two days later, releasing a fresh block of shares into a thin float.
The company priced its offering at $135 a share on Jun. 11 and watched the stock reach an intraday high of $225.64 within five days. It closed at $115.26 on Jul. 22, roughly 49% below that peak and about 15% under the price investors paid at the offering. Only about 5% of the roughly 13 billion shares outstanding trade freely, a small float that lets heavy short positions swing the price far more than the company's size suggests.
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