SpaceX Surpasses Amazon in Market Value After IPO Surge

Stock futures pointed higher Wednesday as investors braced for the Federal Reserve's first interest rate decision under new Chairman Kevin Warsh, while shares of Elon Musk's SpaceX extended a steep post-IPO climb that has pushed the company's market value beyond Amazon's despite years of large operating losses.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent and Nasdaq-100 contracts gained 0.5 percent in early trading, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures holding near flat. The moves came after a mixed session Tuesday in which the Dow briefly crossed 52,000 for the first time. Attention on Wall Street centered on whether Warsh would signal any shift in the current target range of 3.5 to 3.75 percent, though most analysts expect rates to stay on hold.

SpaceX shares advanced more than 3 percent in premarket trading, building on gains that have lifted the stock roughly 62 percent since its debut last Friday at $135 a share. The rapid increase has carried the company's valuation above $2.65 trillion, eclipsing Amazon and briefly placing SpaceX among the four largest U.S. firms by market capitalization. The surge has been fueled by optimism around Starlink's satellite network and reusable rocket technology, along with Musk's public projection that revenue could approach $1 trillion by 2030.

Yet the company's financial record shows persistent shortfalls. SpaceX posted a $4.9 billion net loss for 2025 and an additional $4.28 billion loss in the first quarter of this year. Analysts have noted that investors appear to be pricing in long-term growth narratives rather than current earnings, a pattern that has drawn comparisons to earlier periods of technology-stock enthusiasm. Peter Boockvar of One Point BFG Wealth Partners observed that participants are trading excitement and the Musk brand, but warned that fundamentals will eventually need to align with the elevated valuation, a process he said could take several years.

Chip stocks also moved higher in sympathy, with ASML climbing 4 percent and Intel rising nearly 3 percent. Semiconductor exchange-traded funds tracked those advances. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei 225 reached a fresh record, while South Korea's Kospi rose more than 1.5 percent; European benchmarks edged modestly upward.

The SpaceX rally has highlighted broader questions about how quickly private companies with dominant positions in emerging sectors can command public-market premiums once they list. With the Federal Reserve's updated projections due alongside the policy statement, traders are watching for any indication that elevated valuations across growth stocks could face pressure if borrowing costs remain higher for longer. Warsh is also scheduled to hold a news conference shortly after the announcement, his first as chair.

Market participants will parse both the decision and any revisions to economic forecasts for clues about the path of rates through the rest of the year.