Elon Musk's SpaceX Stock Tumbles 9% as Democratic Sweep Clouds Tesla Merger Hopes and AI Data Center Ambitions

Shares of SpaceX fell more than 9% on Thursday, extending a post-election slide as investors worried that Democratic control of Congress could complicate Elon Musk's plans for the rocket and satellite company.

SpaceX shares fell $12.61, or 9.28%, to $123.31 in Thursday trading, with about 74.8 million shares changing hands. The decline left the company's market value at about $1.66 trillion.

The losses extended a selloff that began after Tuesday's elections. SpaceX shares closed at $135.92 on Nov. 4, down 3.81%.

Musk companies hit hard

SpaceX was not alone. SpaceX and Tesla were pounded after Democrats won control of the House and Senate, raising concerns over regulatory hurdles for data center buildouts and merger aspirations between the two companies.

The losses have hit Musk's personal fortune. One report said the midterm drop in SpaceX and Tesla stock cut Musk's wealth by $33 billion.

Merger questions

A potential combination of SpaceX and Tesla is now in doubt. Musk has been eyeing a merger that could leave him controlling most of the votes in the combined company, and a Democratic Congress could make that harder.

Political pressure is building. One headline reported that a Texas senator said Democrats will "go after Elon Musk."

AI ambitions at risk

SpaceX's growing focus on artificial intelligence has made it vulnerable to the data center selloff. The Texas-based company has increasingly leaned into AI compute as a revenue source. Benzinga described SpaceX as one of several AI infrastructure names hurt by the midterm results.

Earlier this year, Musk also announced a Terafab, a massive semiconductor manufacturing complex in Texas to supply SpaceX and Tesla.

Financing news added pressure. Reports said SpaceX's $40 billion chip financing hit the market.

Strong fundamentals

The selloff comes despite robust growth. SpaceX's third-quarter revenue was $14.575 billion, up 161% from a year earlier, with $4.4 billion in net income compared with a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier.

There was some positive news this week. A multiyear deal with Qualcomm to build the ground network for Starlink Mobile, SpaceX's planned wireless carrier, helped buffer the stock's fall on Wednesday.

Volatile since IPO

The stock has been volatile since its debut. SpaceX went public on Nasdaq on June 12, 2026. By late July, shares had fallen about 50% from their peak in the week after the IPO. The stock's 52-week range runs from $104.83 to $225.64.