Elon Musk's SpaceX has overtaken Amazon to become the world's fifth most valuable company, just days after its record-breaking stock market debut. The milestone came as it announced a $60bn (£44bn) deal to buy the AI coding startup Cursor, owned by San Francisco-based Anysphere.
Shares in SpaceX surged more than 50% since floating on the Nasdaq at $135 each on Friday. By Tuesday, the rocket and satellite group's market capitalisation hit $2.78tn (£2.1tn), leapfrogging Amazon's $2.66tn. At one point, its valuation reached as high as $2.97tn, according to the Guardian.
“Elon Musk's SpaceX surged past Amazon in market value days after its record IPO, fueled by a $60bn AI startup acquisition.”
The acquisition of Cursor – which uses artificial intelligence to automate code writing and has more than 1 million users – aims to boost the capabilities of SpaceX's AI business, xAI. The two companies had been partners since April, when Musk's firm secured an option to either buy Cursor for $60bn later this year or pay $10bn for ongoing collaboration.
Despite SpaceX's soaring valuation, its financials remain far behind Amazon's. In the first quarter of 2026, SpaceX lost $4.3bn while Amazon made $30.3bn in profit. Last year, Amazon accrued $716.9bn in sales versus SpaceX's $18.67bn. The only profitable part of SpaceX is Starlink, its satellite internet service.
Investor enthusiasm has been driven by Musk's vision of sending AI data centres to space and colonising Mars. The IPO raised $85.7bn and made Musk the world's first trillionaire, with Forbes estimating his net worth at $1.3tn.
However, some analysts warn the high share price may be unsustainable. Venture capitalist Eileen Burbidge told the BBC that many traders seem to be buying into a "well-marketed opportunity" to invest in Musk rather than based on financial fundamentals. Dan Sheehan from Telos Wealth Advisors cautioned that smaller shareholders could "end up paying a premium for stock now that gets diluted later" if institutional investors sell, as only about 4% of shares are available for public trading.
Harrison Rolfes, an analyst at PitchBook, said the Cursor deal would not "close the gap" between xAI's models and rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI, but noted it made sense to gain access to Cursor's user base. "Owning the tool that professional developers already trust daily is a faster path to enterprise AI revenue," he said.
SpaceX's market cap has now surpassed Amazon, but whether its stock can hold the gains remains uncertain given the gap between its valuation and underlying earnings.