SpaceX overtakes Amazon to become the fifth-largest company in the world. Now it's closing in on Microsoft.

By Jules Rimmer and William Gavin

SpaceX briefly surpassed Microsoft on an intraday basis before surrendering some gains

SpaceX's stock is on track to log its third session in a row of gains.

SpaceX went public only a few days ago, but it has already overtaken Amazon.com in the rankings of the world's largest companies.

Shares of the rocket-launch company (SPCX) were up 5% when the market closed on Tuesday, putting SpaceX's market capitalization at $2.66 trillion. That was just enough growth to surpass Amazon (AMZN) and its $2.65 trillion market cap, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The jump in SpaceX shares has been meteoric. The stock surged as high as $225.64 per share on Tuesday, a 67% jump from the company's initial public offering price. However, Tuesday's gains have been largely pared back.

The stock rallied 19% on its first day of trading, then gained another 19% on Monday, buoyed by bullish projections from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the overall upbeat mood across markets in response to the proposed peace agreement in the Middle East.

SpaceX is also closing in on Microsoft (MSFT), the world's fourth-largest public company by market cap. SpaceX actually briefly overtook Microsoft, which has a $2.93 trillion market cap, in intraday action.

Investors should note, of course, that the free float of SpaceX is only 5%, a tiny sliver of total shares outstanding, and that the first wave of 20% of shares held by insiders that can be sold will be released on Aug. 11. Thereafter, there are set to be rolling releases of 7% of shares every few weeks through October.

Evidence of the fear of missing out, or FOMO, and intense retail demand for the stock was demonstrated by the Monday exercise of the "greenshoe option," for some 83 million shares, by lead underwriters.

SpaceX on Tuesday also announced that it would follow through on its $60 billion option to acquire Cursor in an effort to boost its artificial-intelligence training. The AI coding startup has been working with SpaceX to "create the world's best coding and knowledge work AI" since April. At the time, SpaceX said it was given the right to buy the startup.

Cursor, like several other AI companies, has grown rapidly. Its annualized revenue topped $4 billion in June, up from $3 billion in late April, according to Forbes. It raised money at a $29.3 billion valuation last November, just five months after its valuation was pinned at $9.9 billion following an earlier fundraising round.

The all-stock deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, SpaceX said Tuesday.

Read more: What is Cursor? SpaceX could buy the AI company for a whopping $60 billion.

-Jules Rimmer -William Gavin

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-16-26 1629ET