SpaceX Shares Surge to Mid-June Highs as Morgan Stanley Sets $300 Target

Shares of SpaceX climbed nearly 8% on Monday to close at $171.09, reaching their highest level since mid-June, according to a report by CNBC Business (https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/05/spacex-stock-climbs-highest-since-june-returning-musk-to-trillionaire.html). The rally lifted chief executive Elon Musk's net worth back to $1.03 trillion across his holdings in SpaceX and Tesla, based on Forbes' real-time billionaires list.

The move followed a Sunday research note from Morgan Stanley analysts, who called the stock "cheap" and set a $300 price target, representing about 75% upside from Monday's close. The firm highlighted catalysts including upcoming Starship milestones, future artificial intelligence product releases, and additional neocloud compute contracts. Morgan Stanley advised buying shares ahead of an upcoming Starship test flight and third-quarter earnings scheduled for late October, noting that an attempt to catch the vehicle's upper stage could serve as the company's largest catalyst since its June public debut.

The analyst note came after SpaceX conducted multiple flights in a single day late last week, flying a crewed NASA mission to the International Space Station and launching Google AI semiconductors into orbit. Starship, designed to be fully reusable across both its booster and upper stage, remains central to SpaceX's plans to deploy Starlink satellites alongside commercial and government payloads. While previous tests featured ocean splashdowns for the upper stage, an operational catch would mark a step toward full reusability.

SpaceX has also expanded its artificial intelligence footprint after acquiring Musk's xAI last year and code-editing startup Cursor. While the homegrown Grok model has trailed market adoption behind OpenAI and Anthropic, SpaceX generates compute revenue by leasing infrastructure to companies including Google and Anthropic. Over the weekend, Musk announced plans to rebrand the SpaceXAI division as SpaceXSI, aligning with branding from President Donald Trump.

Federal defense contracts represent another expanding revenue channel. The Pentagon appointed Musk on Wednesday as co-lead of Project Meridian, an initiative evaluating future military technology and weapons capabilities. SpaceX has accumulated more than $12.7 billion in Defense Department contracts to date, according to data from FedScout.

Monday's gain marks a continued rebound for SpaceX since its June 12 initial public offering. After peaking at a record close of $201.80 on June 16, the stock fell through early August before recovering roughly 58%. Musk was not present Monday at a New York City Council hearing examining local AI regulation, where representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta testified.