SpaceX (SPCX.US) shares plummeted 40%, causing Musk's assets to shrink by $48.5 billion

According to Woofun AI, Elon Musk's net worth shrunk drastically due to sharp fluctuations in SpaceX (SPCX.US) stock prices, and assets evaporated more than $485 billion in a single day on Friday, reducing its total wealth from the recent trillion dollar level to $865 billion.

The core driving force behind this decline in wealth was not its Tesla (TSLA.US) shares, but the worsening performance of SpaceX (SPCX.US) in the Nasdaq market. SpaceX (SPCX.US) shares fell to $134 on Friday due to the overall downturn in the US stock market and the de-bubble of the artificial intelligence industry. This not only hit a new low since August, but also showed a significant decline from last month's high of $176.56. Compared with its all-time high price after its initial public offering (IPO), the decline was as high as 40%.

According to data compiled by Woofun AI, market fears are mainly due to questions about the return on investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, and SpaceX (SPCX.US) is one of the most capital-intensive players in this field. Although the company revealed in its latest earnings report that its artificial intelligence business reached $7.56 billion in revenue for the September quarter, successfully surpassing Starlink's $5.24 billion as the biggest source of revenue, the capital expenditure behind it was just as impressive. The AI business's capital expenditure for the quarter was as high as $16.4 billion, which is far more than the aerospace and networking business segments combined.

Furthermore, SpaceX (SPCX.US) owns Grok, a product that directly competes with ChatGPT and Claude, and Musk has warned that more than 200 new cloud service companies may go out of business due to broken capital chains.

This concern about the bursting of the industry bubble directly hit SpaceX (SPCX.US), which needed $40 billion to develop its data center business. Notably, the weakness of SpaceX (SPCX.US) is not an exception; the stock prices of its rivals CoreWeave (CRWV.US), Nebius (NBIS.US), and IREN (IREN.US) all fell by more than 50% from their all-time highs, reflecting that the entire AI infrastructure sector is undergoing valuation restructuring.

In stark contrast to the downturn in SpaceX (SPCX.US), Tesla (TSLA.US) showed strong resilience this week. As of the end of the week, Tesla (TSLA.US) shares closed at $400, up 34% from their lowest point in July this year. This upward trend was supported by Musk's earlier idea of merging SpaceX (SPCX.US) with Tesla (TSLA.US) to form a large enterprise group, and the market gave positive feedback on this.

At the same time, changes in macro energy prices have also provided favorable support for Tesla (TSLA.US). Currently, the average price of gasoline has risen to 4.2 US dollars, and the price of diesel is also near a record high, which has prompted more American consumers to switch to electric vehicles with lower maintenance costs. The improvement in fundamentals further confirms market confidence. Tesla (TSLA.US)'s latest delivery report shows that 486,532 vehicles were delivered in the third quarter, far higher than 464,391 vehicles in the previous quarter, indicating continued strong demand.

Judging from the asset structure, Elon Musk holds about 49% of SpaceX (SPCX.US) shares. This part of the assets forms the main body of his wealth, while about 12% of his Tesla (TSLA.US) shares are worth about 1970 billion US dollars. Analyst Dan Ives predicted in a recent analysis report that once the SpaceX (SPCX.US) and Tesla (TSLA.US) merger plan is implemented, Tesla (TSLA.US) stock price may reach around $500 per share because investors are willing to pay a higher premium for this scale effect.

However, until the merger is completed, the high capital expenditure of SpaceX (SPCX.US) and the risk of valuation pullbacks in the AI industry as a whole will still be key variables to suppress Elon Musk's net worth growth. This situation marks that tech giants are facing a brutal transition from a 'growth narrative' to a 'profit reality' as they pursue AI hegemony.