Short sellers have made a fortune betting against SpaceX — but the party won’t last forever

Nypost · Jul 31, 2026 · 633 words · By Charles Gasparino

Market Volatility Investment Risk Elon Musk's Reputation

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What to know about Market Volatility

Short sellers have made a fortune betting against Elon Musk’s SpaceX — but the party won’t last forever See more of our coverage in your search results.

Claims checked 11

Techniques found 2

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Short sellers have made a fortune betting against Elon Musk’s SpaceX — but the party won’t last forever See more of our coverage in your search results.

Why it matters

Add The New York Post on Google Short sellers have a history of betting against Elon Musk and epically failing, but their latest gamble is paying off and could continue to do so – at least for a while.

Common ground

That would be their increasingly profitable bet against SpaceX, Musk’s futuristic mind-meld that combines space exploration with satellite internet service, plus a heavy dose to AI and social media.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Exaggeration / Hyperbole: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Market Volatility story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that the debut price of $135 a share quickly shot to above $175 in the first day of trading?
How does this story connect Market Volatility with Investment Risk over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/07/31/business/short-sellers-make-fortune-betting-agains…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 2 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Exaggeration / Hyperbole 70% confidence

Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.

Why it matters: Recognizing exaggeration / hyperbole helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 11 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 3

verified Verified By Reference 3

info Single Source 2

help Insufficient Evidence 2

schedule Pending 1

info

Claim 1: “the debut price of $135 a share quickly shot to above $175 in the first day of trading.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The specific debut price of $135 and the rise to $175 is mentioned in one web search result. While Wikipedia confirms the IPO happened, it does not provide the specific per-share price movements.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX, an American aerospace and artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk in 2002, occurred on June 12, 2026. It was the largest ever IPO, at a valuat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering_of_Spa…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, is an American spaceflight, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence company headquartered at the Starbase development site in St…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$738 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and $744 billion according to Forbes, as of July 23, 2026, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of_Elon_Musk

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Claim 2: “SpaceX announces earnings next week on Aug. 4”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources (Bloomberg, ZeroHedge, YouTube) discuss the anticipation and release of SpaceX's first earnings report following the IPO.

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web search NEUTRAL — SpaceX’s first earnings release following its record initial public offering is one of the most anticipated reports of the summer for traders on Wall Street and beyond.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-04/spacex-s-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Ahead of SpaceX earnings set to be released at 1600 ET (earnings call at 1630 ET), UBS analyst Christina Dwyer provided clients with color on what to look for ahead of earnings
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/spacex-earnings-preview-fi…

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web search NEUTRAL — SpaceX’s revenue exceeded Wall Street’s expectations in the company’s first quarterly financial report following its blockbuster initial public offering in June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEsbb3EOpJw

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Claim 3: “Just Monday and Tuesday of this week alone, they’ve added 37.7 million shares to their negative bets.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the specific number of shares (37.7 million) added to short positions on Monday and Tuesday.

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Claim 4: “its current share price of around $112”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results returned for 'current share price' were irrelevant (discussing electrical current and a fintech company called Current), providing no data on SpaceX's stock price.

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web search NEUTRAL — Since current can be the flow of either positive or negative charges, or both, a convention is needed for the direction of current that is independent of the type of charge carriers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_current

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web search NEUTRAL — Current (Finco Services, Inc.) is an American financial services and software development company (FinTech) based in New York City [1] which provides mobile banking services through its partner banks,…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_(financial_services_…

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web search NEUTRAL — When you buy or sell cryptocurrency, a difference between the current market price and the price you buy or sell that asset for is called a spread. However, unlike most other exchanges, Current does n…
https://current.com/

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Claim 5: “two days later the company’s first “lockup” ends, meaning SpaceX so-called insider shareholders (its initial investors) can sell as much as 911.5 million shares”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the specific lockup expiration date or the number of shares (911.5 million).

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Claim 6: “the IPO just a few weeks ago was a hot one – Musk raised $85 billion”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm the SpaceX IPO occurred on June 12, 2026. One web source specifically mentions Musk raised $85 billion, and Wikipedia confirms it was the largest ever IPO.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — SpaceXAI (formerly xAI) is a subsidiary of the American spaceflight company SpaceX working in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media. SpaceXAI's flagship products are the generativ…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceXAI

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+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 7: “shares have fallen 36% from their intraday high.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of general Wikipedia entries about SpaceX and Starship, but contains no financial data regarding intraday high price drops.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — SpaceX Starbase, previously known as SpaceX South Texas Launch Site and SpaceX private launch site, is an industrial complex and rocket launch facility that serves as the main testing and production l…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starbase

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Starship is a two-stage, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. Currently built and launched from Starbase in Texas, it is intended as …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 8: “SpaceX isn’t in the S&P 500 yet”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The evidence confirms SpaceX went public in June 2026. The S&P 500 list is a separate reference; while the evidence doesn't explicitly say 'SpaceX is not in it', the fact that it just IPOd a few weeks prior to the current date (July 2026) makes it factually consistent that it hasn't been added to the index yet.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The S&P 500 is a stock market index maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It comprises 503 common stocks which are issued by 500 large-cap companies (including two share classes of stock from three of …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S&P_500_companies

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 9: “The selloff recently smacked a $20 billion hedge fund, Situational Awareness”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 10: “Bob Sloan the founder of S3 Partners, a firm that provides financial analytics to institutional investors”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Multiple professional profiles (Tracxn, LinkedIn, Global Custodian) explicitly identify Bob Sloan as the founder and managing partner of S3 Partners.

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web search NEUTRAL — S3 Partners's funding and investors. S3 Partners is a funded company. S3 Partners has 1 institutional investor.The founders of S3 Partners is Bob Sloan. Here are the details of S3 Partners' key team m…
https://tracxn.com/d/companies/s3partners/__a6tJWl3X0__JNZIW…

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web search NEUTRAL — Bob Sloan. New York City Metropolitan Area. 6K followers 500+ connections. See your mutual connections. View mutual connections with Bob. Bob can introduce you to 10+ people at S3 Partners.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-sloan-5878372a

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web search NEUTRAL — Founder and Managing Partner • S3 Partners • New York •. While some people see turmoil in today’s market, Bob Sloan sees something else. In fact, he says the market today is similar to the one he firs…
https://www.globalcustodian.com/gc-legends/sloan-bob/

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Claim 11: “around 35% of SpaceX’s public shares are being shorted”

CORROBORATED

ZeroHedge reports short interest amounting to 34% of the float, which is very close to the claimed 35%. Another source mentions a 'growing number of short sellers'.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — As of July 24, 2026, the SpaceX Starship has been launched 13 times, with 8 successes and 5 failures. SpaceX has developed Starship with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starship_launches

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+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.