Why Cathie Wood’s ARK Is Aggressively Buying SpaceX During the Stock Collapse

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX

ARK Makes Significant Purchases During Market Weakness

As shares continued their descent, Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management executed a contrarian buying strategy on Monday. The investment firm acquired 124,543 shares of SpaceX worth approximately $14.1 million, distributing the purchases across four exchange-traded funds: ARK Innovation, ARK Autonomous Technology and Robotics, ARK Next Generation Internet, and ARK Space and Defense Innovation.

The firm simultaneously expanded its Tesla position, accumulating 27,864 shares valued at roughly $8.6 million across two separate ETFs.

Balancing these acquisitions, ARK divested holdings in other companies, including 9,407 shares of Deere and Co valued at $5.9 million. The firm also liquidated 72,497 shares in 10X Genomics, representing approximately $3.4 million.

Despite the persistent selling pressure, Wood maintained an optimistic outlook. Following the recent Starship mission, she shared on X: “Bull markets do not end in this way. They end when everyone believes the sky is the limit.”

Technical Achievements Fail to Support Share Price

SpaceX’s thirteenth Starship test mission accomplished the majority of its planned objectives. The flight successfully deployed operational Starlink V3 satellites, demonstrated a Raptor engine relight in the vacuum of space, and executed a controlled ocean landing while maintaining telemetry transmission throughout the descent.

Despite the stock’s struggles, Raymond James maintained its Strong Buy recommendation with an $800 price target, implying potential gains exceeding 600% from present levels. Analysts at the firm characterized the mission as progressive movement toward achieving complete reusability.

The primary shortcoming involved the Super Heavy booster, which was unable to execute a successful landing burn sequence.

Critical Events on the Horizon

The space exploration company is scheduled to announce its first quarterly earnings as a publicly traded entity on August 4. Following that, on August 6, as many as 911.5 million shares currently under lockup restrictions could become available for trading, representing the initial wave of post-IPO share releases. Elon Musk and select other company insiders face extended lockup periods.

Prominent long-term investor Ron Baron disclosed that SpaceX represents $25 billion of his firm’s $70 billion total assets under management as of June. His investment vehicle has deployed $2 billion through 27 separate transactions beginning in 2017, supplemented by an additional $1 billion during the IPO. Baron projects SpaceX could ultimately achieve a valuation between $20 trillion and $40 trillion within the next decade to fifteen years.

Ross Gerber from Gerber Kawasaki revealed his firm elected not to participate in the SpaceX IPO, though he indicated the current selloff might eventually create “a bargain” opportunity within the coming twelve months.