SpaceX Starship launch delayed [Reuters=Yonhap News]

SpaceX has seen its market capitalization evaporate by over $1 trillion (1,489 trillion won) since peaking about a month ago, causing it to fall to 8th place among major U.S. companies, according to a report by financial media outlet MarketWatch on the 20th (local time).

SpaceX once climbed to 5th place among U.S. companies by market cap, surpassing Amazon.com and trailing Microsoft.

However, according to Dow Jones Market Data, SpaceX's ranking fell behind Meta Platforms today, and it also lost its standing to Broadcom last week after its stock price dropped below its initial public offering (IPO) price ($135) for the first time.

SpaceX shares closed at $119.85 today, down 21.0% over the last seven trading sessions. Its current market cap stands at approximately $1.59 trillion (2,368 trillion won), falling short of Meta's $1.64 trillion (2,442 trillion won).

The stock's lackluster performance is tied to repeated setbacks in the test launches of its Starship rocket. A test launch was delayed on the 16th due to a failure in some engine ignitions, and the company plans to retry as early as the 23rd after replacing the two problematic engines. The launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, scheduled for the morning of the 20th, was also canceled.

"Starship is a core pillar of the company's connectivity and AI business," said Greg Fendi, an analyst at Clear Street Research. "If the schedule slips, the entire growth narrative is effectively delayed."

In contrast, Meta's stock has risen 14.7% so far in July.

The company's new model, 'Muse Spark 1.1', has been well-received, and it is reportedly in negotiations for a deal worth up to $10 billion (14.9 trillion won) to lease computing power to the AI research lab Anthropic.

Separately, it is known that Anthropic has also purchased tens of billions of dollars worth of computing resources from SpaceX to be utilized through May 2029. [Yonhap News]