$SPCX Jumps 7%, $TSLA 4.7% as Launches and Deliveries Land

NEW YORK — Elon Musk's two public companies had a strong Friday. SpaceX — NASDAQ: SPCX — closed up roughly 7% at $158.96, and Tesla — NASDAQ: TSLA — rose 4.65% to $370.59 after a run of operational wins and a better-than-expected delivery report.

SpaceX Rides a Launch Streak

The $SPCX rally followed one of the busiest 24-hour stretches in the company's history. SpaceX launched NASA's Crew-13 mission, a Transporter-18 rideshare carrying a prototype for Google's Project Suncatcher, and a Falcon Heavy flight for the National Reconnaissance Office, three liftoffs in under 13 hours. Crew-13's Dragon capsule also docked with the space station in under eight hours, the fastest trip ever for a U.S. spacecraft, as Space.com reported.

Those wins came just days after Starship reached orbit for the first time, a milestone covered in our earlier look at how the stock held near $150 after that flight. Investing.com noted shares climbed from a prior close of $148.07, and the session high was $159.84.

Market Data Snapshot

SpaceX closed at $158.96, a gain of $10.89, or about 7.4%, giving it a market capitalization of roughly $2.1 trillion. Tesla closed at $370.59, up 4.65%, on volume of 53.9 million shares, about 39% above its three-month average of 38.7 million. Prices are Friday, Oct. 2 closing snapshots and may differ from live quotes.

Investors can follow both stocks on live quote pages, including Yahoo Finance for $SPCX and $TSLA, Google Finance for SPCX and TSLA, the WSJ pages for SPCX and TSLA, and Nasdaq for SPCX and TSLA.

Why Shares Moved

Beyond the launches, Elon Musk said SpaceX is cautiously optimistic that its Starmind orbital AI system could run Nvidia hardware at roughly 250 kilowatts of average power, which supports the case for orbital data centers. The Motley Fool also pointed to Google's AI compute contract with SpaceX, which pays $920 million a month and ramps up in October, adding about $29.4 billion through June 2029. That AI story is the one behind SpaceX's roughly $2 trillion valuation, and analysts rate $SPCX a Moderate Buy, with an average price target of $235.10, according to TipRanks.

Tesla Gets Its Delivery Beat

For $TSLA, the catalyst was the third-quarter report. Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles, about 25,000 above consensus, and the total cleared every estimate on Wall Street's list. RBC analysts, who rate the stock outperform, called the figure impressive in a note, CNBC reported.

What to Watch

Tesla reports third-quarter financial results on Wednesday, Oct. 21, after the bell, with a webcast at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. The Roadster reveal is set for Oct. 15. For SpaceX, the Google compute ramp and the next Starship flight loom as the next catalysts, alongside new tickers such as $NVDA that tie into the orbital AI story.

This article does not constitute financial advice. Readers are advised to do their own research before investing in the stock market. Prices cited are point-in-time snapshots and may be stale — always confirm on a live financial source.