On Friday, SpaceX received a new bearish rating as an analyst raised new concerns about the company’s need for cash.
DZ Bank started covering Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company with a bearish rating and set a price target much lower than the current stock price, according to ratings aggregators. DZ Bank did not respond right away to a request for the full report.
This rating is very different from the general mood on Wall Street, where most analysts are bullish on SpaceX, even more so than for most S&P 500 companies. The difference between DZ Bank’s target and the average Wall Street target suggests a gap of about $1.7 trillion in projected market value.
Most optimistic investors expect SpaceX’s revenue to grow a lot in the next few years. FactSet says sales could reach over $100 billion in 2027, up from about $44 billion in 2026, and may go beyond $760 billion by the end of the decade. But reaching those numbers will take huge spending to launch AI and communications satellites. Wall Street estimates SpaceX will need to spend about $800 billion by the end of the decade, so the company will probably have to raise hundreds of billions through more debt and equity.
A large part of this spending will likely go to AI infrastructure. Building one gigawatt of AI computing power can cost around $50 billion. Right now, SpaceX runs about 1.4 gigawatts of computing power at two data centers and wants to reach 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027. In the long run, the company hopes to reach hundreds of gigawatts. The possible rewards are big too, since one gigawatt of AI computing power can bring in up to $50 billion a year in rental revenue.
The new bearish rating did not have much effect on the stock right away. Shares went up slightly in premarket trading on Friday, about the same as the broader market futures.
On Thursday, shares dropped sharply when about 319 million shares owned by insiders and early investors became available for trading. Investor mood also fell after Musk said SpaceX would wait several more months before trying to catch the upper stage of its Starship rocket, which disappointed those hoping for a test in August. Starship is still a key part of SpaceX’s long-term plans, since the reusable rocket is meant to lower the cost of reaching orbit and support future projects like space-based AI data centers.
By Friday, SpaceX shares had fallen for the week and were trading near their original IPO price. The stock was still well below its all-time high but above its lowest point since going public.
