Cathie Wood’s firm added $20.5 million across four ETFs as SpaceX rebounded from a steep post-IPO drop, while bearish bets climbed to about 206 million shares, or 32% of the public float, before earnings and lock-up releases.
ARK Invest bought $20.5 million of SpaceX on July 20 across its ARKK, ARKW, ARKQ and ARKX funds as the stock remained below its $135 IPO price after a sharp post-listing decline. Investors are focused on SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company, due after U.S. markets close on Aug. 4, and on an unusual lock-up schedule that could release up to 20% of eligible insider shares, or as many as 911.5 million shares, with another 10% potentially unlocked if performance conditions are met. At the same time, short interest rose to about 206 million shares, or roughly 32% of the publicly tradable float, according to S3 Partners, representing about $25 billion in bearish bets. Elon Musk said on X that firms maintaining significant short positions in SpaceX face a very low survival probability over time. Investors are also watching Starship and Falcon 9 launch disruptions, SpaceX’s Starlink and AI ambitions, and the company’s bitcoin treasury of about 18,712 BTC, worth roughly $1.19 billion at current prices.