SpaceX insiders have gained their first chance to sell stock publicly on Thursday as a lockup agreement expired, freeing up to 911.5 million shares valued at roughly $101 billion. This is likely to put pressure on the stock price of Elon Musk’s rocket company as insiders cash out.
Quartz reports that the lockup expiration increases the total shares available for trading to as many as 1.55 billion from approximately 639 million shares in its IPO. However, a separate tranche of up to 455.8 million shares will remain locked because SpaceX stock is trading below its $135 IPO price, according to MarketWatch. SpaceX stock closed at $108.27 on Wednesday.
Thursday’s expiration marks the first real opportunity for employees and early investors to convert their holdings into cash since December 2025. “This is the first real opportunity to turn paper wealth into real, hard cash that they can actually spend,” said financial advisor Evan Mills, who works with current and former SpaceX employees.
Breitbart News previously reported that about 4,000 current and former SpaceX employees became millionaires based on their stock holdings, which they can now trade as the lockup expires:
Real estate professionals are already experiencing increased interest from SpaceX employees seeking high-end properties. Gerard Bisignano, a partner at Vista Sotheby’s, reports receiving recent inquiries from several longtime SpaceX employees, primarily in their mid-30s to early 40s, searching for homes in California’s South Bay area. The region includes affluent coastal communities such as Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Palos Verdes Estates, all within close proximity to SpaceX’s California headquarters.
“They seem to be in a state of disbelief themselves that they’re suddenly going to be able to, in some examples, buy a home for their parents. They’re going to have all this discretionary income that they can really do what they want,” Bisignano said.
Bisignano anticipates a buying surge similar to the one that followed Facebook’s 2012 initial public offering, when home values in neighborhoods near the company’s headquarters increased by 21 percent. He also expects strong interest in second homes in desirable California locations including Mammoth Lakes, Palm Springs, and Tahoe.
The lockup expiration comes as SpaceX stock faces downward pressure. Shares dropped more than 10 percent on Wednesday following the company’s first public earnings call, which disappointed investors despite revenue of $7.8 billion for the quarter. The stock has fallen more than 50 percent from its June 16 peak of $225.64. Short sellers have targeted the stock aggressively, with S3 Partners data showing that 35 percent of the available float is currently being sold short, according to Bloomberg.
“We’ve never seen anything like it, we’ve never seen anything of this scale, we’ve never seen a lock-up being phased in this way,” said Peter Singlehurst, head of the private companies team at Baillie Gifford. “We’re in uncharted waters.”
SpaceX structured its lockup with a staggered nine-stage release schedule rather than the traditional single 180-day expiration. The design aims to reduce the risk of a sudden flood of selling. A second release of 319 million shares is scheduled for August 12, with additional tranches continuing to become available through year-end, according to Barron’s. The complete 180-day lockup runs through early December, at which point up to 5.33 billion shares would be eligible for trading, according to Bloomberg. A separate extended lockup covering CEO Elon Musk and select other shareholders runs until June 2027.
The tiered release structure was triggered by SpaceX’s first earnings report, which the company posted after market close on August 4. The first tranche, covering up to 20 percent of eligible insider shares, became eligible for sale on Thursday, the second full trading day after results were released.
How much selling actually occurs remains unclear. J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuth wrote in a research note that investors have been actively repositioning in anticipation of Thursday’s event, a dynamic that may soften any selling pressure once the shares are free to trade. Shares began trading Thursday up slightly at $111 per share.
Read more at Quartz here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.