The SpaceX logo is displayed on a building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. [AP]
The SpaceX logo is displayed on a building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. [AP]

SpaceX has become a black hole for Korean retail investors since its Nasdaq debut, pulling in nearly 3 trillion won in net purchases within just four trading days. Money has also poured into high-risk leveraged and inverse products tied to the stock. But with SpaceX shares surging sharply over three trading days before reversing just as violently toward their IPO price, analysts are warning investors to exercise caution given the extreme volatility.

Korean retail investors — commonly known as "seohak gaemi," or retail investors who trade US stocks — net purchased $1.95 billion (about 2.997 trillion won) worth of SpaceX Class A shares in the four trading days from June 12 (local time), following the company's listing, according to the Korea Securities Depository's securities information portal SEIBro.

That figure dwarfs the second- and third-ranked net purchases over the same period: the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) at $90.73 million and the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) at $66.8 million.

Korean retail investors' appetite extended well beyond the stock itself, with large sums flowing into high-risk exchange-traded funds designed to amplify SpaceX's daily price swings. The Leverage Shares 2X Long SPCX Daily ETF (SPCH), which tracks twice SpaceX's daily return, ranked fourth in net purchases among Korean retail investors over the same period, drawing $62.76 million (about 96.4 billion won).

Investors also net purchased $14.08 million (about 21.6 billion won) of the Leverage Shares SPCX Daily -2X (SSPC), which doubles the bet on a SpaceX share price decline. Several other SpaceX-linked ETFs — including the ProShares Ultra SpaceX (SPCF) and the T-Rex 2X Long SpaceX Daily Target ETF (SPAX) — also ranked among the top 50 net purchases by Korean retail investors during the period.

SpaceX Class A has also displaced Micron Technology as the top net-purchased stock by Korean retail investors for the year to date. Before SpaceX's listing, Micron had led with cumulative net purchases of $1.1305 billion, but funds shifted away after SpaceX debuted, trimming Micron's year-to-date net purchase total to $1.0856 billion.

Returns, however, are far from guaranteed. SpaceX shares tumbled 16.4% the previous day after reports emerged that the company plans to issue at least $20 billion in investment-grade corporate bonds — its first ever — to raise funds for AI infrastructure. The company said it holds about $10 billion in cash and cash equivalents, but markets have flagged concerns about the financial burden of a major debt expansion alongside questions about whether the stock was overvalued at its early listing price.

The share price has traced a wild roller-coaster path since the IPO. SpaceX surged 19.22% on its first day of trading (June 12, local time), followed by gains of 19.6% and 4.83% on the next two sessions. The tide turned on the fourth trading day. Shares fell 4.95% on June 17, 3.56% on June 18, and then 16.43% on June 19 — three consecutive sessions of losses — leaving the stock at $154.60.

That is still above the IPO price of $135, but 31.5% below the intraday high of $225.64 reached on June 16. The sell-off wiped roughly $400 billion off SpaceX's market capitalization, leaving it at $2.03 trillion.

Park Sang-hyun, a researcher at iM Securities, said the episode reflects a broader trend. "With AI companies' debt boom accelerating this year, SpaceX's move to raise funds adds to market concerns about AI-driven borrowing risk," he said. "The AI debt boom does not need to be an immediate alarm, but large-scale investment concentrated among hyperscaler companies could ultimately intensify price competition among AI firms."


jiyun@heraldcorp.com