NEW YORK — Shares of Elon Musk's two public companies firmed Friday, with investors cheering a successful first flight of the upgraded Starship V3 and a record quarter for Tesla's energy-storage business.
SpaceX — NASDAQ: SPCX — extended its remarkable run, holding near record territory a day after it surpassed Tesla in market value by nearly $800 billion. Tesla — NASDAQ: TSLA — also advanced, lifted by the energy results and steady momentum across its vehicle and autonomy programs. The moves kept $TSLA and $SPCX among the most actively traded large caps of the session.
What Drove the Tape
The session's catalyst was hardware. SpaceX flew the first full-stack Starship V3 to orbital velocity, caught its Super Heavy booster at the launch tower, and splashed the ship down on target — a clean demonstration that fed enthusiasm for the company's Starlink and deep-space ambitions. For Tesla, the quarter's record 15.9 gigawatt-hours of energy storage reinforced the view that the company is more than a carmaker, with a high-margin energy arm scaling fast.
Analysts have increasingly treated the two stocks as linked bets on the same founder-led technology platform. That connection was on display earlier this week when $TSLA led Musk-linked names higher on Grok and Optimus optimism, and it held again Friday.
By the Numbers
As of midday trading, $TSLA changed hands around $384, up roughly 1.3%, within a 52-week range of about $212 to $414. $SPCX traded near $263, up about 2.1%, close to the upper end of its 52-week band of roughly $150 to $268. Volumes ran above average in both names as momentum traders chased the launch headline.
