Cathie Wood Buys SpaceX Dip After Stock Hits Low Again

ARK Invest adds to SpaceX stake after post-IPO slide

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest purchased $18.3 million of SpaceX shares following a fresh post-IPO low, according to the firm's July 17 trading disclosure. The purchases came as SpaceX shares fell 5.43% intraday and closed at $123.99, trading roughly 8.2% below the company’s $135 IPO offer price.

How ARK allocated the $18.3 million

ARK's daily filing shows four actively managed exchange-traded funds acquired a combined 147,623 SpaceX shares during the session. The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) led the buying, adding 95,129 shares — about $11.8 million at Friday's close. ARK's Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ) bought 30,464 shares valued at roughly $3.78 million, while the Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (ARKX) added 12,611 shares (around $1.56 million). The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) completed the allotment with 9,419 shares, approximately $1.17 million.

Context: ARK's cumulative exposure and recent buying

The July 17 additions extend prior activity by ARK that has rapidly built its SpaceX position since the public listing. During the week ending July 10, ARK funds purchased roughly $52.1 million of SpaceX stock across ARKK, ARKQ, ARKW and ARKX. Data tracked by Ark Invest Tracker indicates the firm’s total investment since the June IPO now tops $475 million. The tracker also noted ARK acquired about $444 million of SpaceX shares around the June 12 market debut, making the recent buys an incremental top-up amid the stock’s pullback.

Other portfolio moves: trimming Robinhood exposure

While increasing its SpaceX weighting, ARK trimmed stakes in Robinhood Markets during the same filing. ARKW sold 20,089 Robinhood shares while ARKK disposed of 5,913 shares, totaling 26,002 shares sold. Robinhood finished the session at $99.96, down 5.72% for the day. The disclosure did not specify the rationale behind the sales.

This trade activity also intersects with the broader crypto ecosystem: Robinhood has been a key crypto retail gateway and recently played a role in memecoin market cycles, including a notable surge tied to the Noxa memecoin on the Robinhood Chain that briefly produced multibillion-dollar market attention.

Operational setback: Starship delay pressures shares

SpaceX's slide followed cancellation of Starship Flight 13 just before lift-off. Pre-flight testing revealed failures in at least two Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster, prompting an abort minutes ahead of launch. Elon Musk said SpaceX would replace the affected engines and rescheduled Flight 13 for July 20 at 6:45 p.m. ET.

Market commentary was split. Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus suggested the weakness reflected growing skepticism about leadership execution, forecasting further downside may be likelier than a sudden steep collapse. By contrast, Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt argued the market overreacted to a short operational delay, calling the postponement a manageable issue rather than a structural problem for SpaceX's long-term trajectory.

What this means for investors and the crypto market

For equity and crypto-focused investors, ARK’s move signals continued institutional appetite for high-growth aerospace and space-tech stocks even amid operational hiccups. Given SpaceX's central role in satellite internet and potential crypto infrastructure use cases, volatility in its stock can ripple into sentiment across related ETFs and web3-adjacent plays.

Short-term traders should expect heightened sensitivity to launch schedules and technical updates, while long-term investors tracking ARK may view these dips as accumulation opportunities. As always, positions in high-beta names like SpaceX and crypto-exposed equities should be sized with risk tolerance and portfolio diversification in mind.

Overall, ARK’s targeted purchases reinforce Cathie Wood’s strategy: buy on weakness in companies the firm believes can deliver disruptive, multi-decade growth in space, autonomous technology, and next-generation internet ecosystems.