Andre Lavoie joined SpaceX in 2009 as an engineer, designing the pressure tanks that help power its rocket. He was paid partly in stock – a common trade-off at start-ups as a hiring incentive.

Some 17 years on, those 200,000 shares he was given are worth about $23m (£17m) – and the 63-year-old says he’s ready to start cashing them as soon as he can.

“Every chance I get going forward, I’ll sell a little bit more,” he tells the BBC.

“The shares have been going up so radically it keeps messing up my life plans – you really can’t know the future, so it’s better to sell early and in intervals.”

Lavoie is far from being the only one who has seen the value of his stake in SpaceX rocket over the years.

The company’s founder, Elon Musk, said on Fox News that SpaceX’s listing on the stock market in June had likely made “several thousand” employees millionaires – including staff “who were working on the production line”.

According to reports, there are estimated to be 4,400 new millionaires created by the listing.

Unlike most newly-listed firms, SpaceX shares are set to be released in stages: the first 20% on 6 August, with more due in batches through the rest of the year.

Whether or not shareholders decide to sell their stake at the first opportunity is a matter for individuals. Unlike Lavoie, some may choose to hold onto their shares altogether in the hope of bigger gains later.

SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq in June, in the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history, valuing the rocket and satellite firm at more than $2 trillion.

It briefly made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, before the stock cooled and his fortune slipped back below the milestone within weeks.

In its first results as a public company this week, the firm’s quarterly revenue was shown to have nearly doubled to $7.8bn (£5.8bn) from a year earlier, while its spending ballooned to $18.3bn – more than six times what it was a year ago.

Overall, SpaceX made a net loss of $143m in the three months to June, and a loss of $2bn during the first six months of the year.

Musk pushed back against sceptics on an earnings call: “I think people are really underestimating Starlink”. He predicted the satellite internet service – the one part of the company that is currently making a profit – could one day deliver a majority of the world’s internet.

But shares in the company tumbled on the back of the earnings report, with investors generally spooked by the huge amounts of money being spent on AI.

SpaceX shares fell 13.6% on Wednesday to $108.27 (£80.44) – well below the initial listing price of $135 a share.

Lavoie plans to use his money from selling some of his shares to fund a hotel he is renovating in Pontebba, Italy’s northeastern Friuli region, plus a small brewery.

He says is priority for the future is raising awareness of air pollution in the area, in partnership with a local environmental group.

Before he was hired, Lavoie was interviewed by Musk himself.

“He’s a very charming person when he wants something,” Lavoie says.

He wouldn’t be drawn on Musk’s politics – “that’s his business” – but is unreserved about the company: “I’ve always been happily supportive and impressed, and would work hard with those incredible people again.”

Some analysts value SpaceX at less than half its current stock market price, warning its ties to xAI carry real financial risk – part of a broader worry on Wall Street that sky-high valuations for AI-linked firms, including SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic, could prove overdone.

Sinead O’Sullivan, an economist who has previously worked for Nasa, told the BBC in June she thinks SpaceX is an “Elon Musk ego project”.

“You’re buying a share of the Elon Musk brand more than any kind of space industry,” she said.

But Ron Epstein, an aerospace analyst at Bank of America Securities, says the recent share price swings say more about the market than the company.

“A lot of it has to do with macro trends,” he says. “None of it really has anything to do with what’s going on fundamentally at the company.”

He says investors judging SpaceX purely as an AI bet are missing the point: “They’re not just a compute provider. They’re not just an AI company. It’s a far more complicated picture than that.”

SpaceX, he adds, has cut the cost of reaching orbit from around $10,000-$20,000 a kilogram to about $2,000 with its Falcon 9 rocket – “they have built a railroad to space.”

Lavoie, for his part, isn’t rattled. He says: “The solid business model of SpaceX will prove itself to be worth the investment,”even as he takes some of his own winnings off the table.

The York-based firm has seen revenues rise 15% in the first half of the year

Housebuilder Persimmon said the UK’s housing market remains “challenging” despite seeing a significant rise in sales in the first half of the year.

The York-based firm completed 5,189 sales – up 13% from the same period last year – and said it was on course to complete 12,500 homes in 2026, at the top end of its previous guidance. Group revenues increased 15% to £1.73bn and profit before tax was 15% up at £168m.

Persimmon said that net private sales were up 6% in the five weeks to the end of June, but it added that open market sales have “softened slightly in recent weeks” due to tough conditions in the wider housing market. Average house prices on its properties rose 1% to £285,752.

Group chief executive Dean Finch said: “Persimmon delivered a strong first half performance, growing our market share, increasing completions by 13% and underlying operating profit by 10%. In a challenging market, this performance demonstrates the strength of our established strategy, product mix and geographic footprint, alongside the benefits of our lower cost operating model, sustained investment in the business and ongoing commitment to self-help.

“We remain on track to deliver growth in 2026 in line with market expectations. I want to thank all my colleagues and our supply chain for their continued hard work in delivering this result.

“Market conditions remain challenging, with affordability constraints and build cost pressures affecting the sector. We have responded quickly, taking clear management action focusing on driving operational efficiencies throughout the business. Our disciplined land buying, industry-leading cost efficiency and vertically integrated operating platform give us important structural advantages as we seek to mitigate cost pressures and support growth.

“Persimmon’s strategy is delivering growth. Having significantly invested in our strategy over recent years, our focus is increasingly on converting those investments into improving returns. Our disciplined land investment at better margins, outlet growth, stronger brands and increasingly differentiated operating platform position us to progressively deliver higher volumes, stronger cash-generation and improving returns over time.”

Persimmon said it had increased market share and was “well-placed to drive further growth through our unique set of capabilities”. The company, which also operates the Charles Church brand, is the UK’s fourth largest housebuilder by volume, though, in common with its rivals, it has seen the number of homes it has built fall in recent years due to challenges in the wider economy.

Boss hails electric vehicle market as EV insurance surged 27% and European operations swung to profit

Admiral saw its profits slide as the insurance giant was dragged down by reduced earned premiums in its UK motor business.

The group’s pre-tax profit declined by 18 per cent to £429.2m in the first half of the year, while turnover held steady at £3.11bn.

Milena Mondini, group chief executive, told City AM the market had been particularly subdued at the end of 2024 and into 2025, prompting the insurer to raise prices at the start of the year to keep pace with claims inflation, adding that she anticipates this will bear fruit in the second half of the year.

Within its motor division, Admiral recorded a 27 per cent increase in its electric vehicle (EV) insurance book, alongside growing demand for its complimentary subscription service aimed at offsetting the costs of EV ownership.

Mondini said Cardiff-based Admiral has been “very competitive for EVs” from a very early stage as EVs are “a great feature for the planet”.

Notwithstanding the challenges facing its UK motor arm, its European operation swung to a profit of £17.2m, recovering from a £0.6m loss the previous year. Mondini said she was “particularly proud” of France, which was running at “very strong margin” and double‐digit growth.

Customer numbers climbed by 5 per cent, surpassing 12 million for the first time.

Admiral shares climbed 4.4 per cent in early trading on Thursday. The stock has gained more than a fifth in value since the beginning of the year.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The headline profit decline only tells half the story. Yes, Admiral is feeling the impact of last year’s softer motor pricing, but under the hood, it’s navigating the turn in the cycle well.

“There are also encouraging signs that Admiral is becoming more than a UK Motor story. Household, Europe and Admiral Money are all moving in the right direction. Near-term earnings may remain a little uneven, but the route back to growth is becoming clearer, and the building blocks for a stronger 2027 are falling into place.”

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NEW YORK — Shares of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plunged 13.61% on Wednesday, closing at $108.27 after the company’s first quarterly results as a public firm revealed explosive revenue growth that was overshadowed by heavy capital spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and an impending release of insider shares.

The stock fell $17.06 from its previous close of $125.33, wiping out recent gains and extending a sharp decline from the June IPO peak near $225. After-hours trading saw a modest rebound to about $110. Volume surged well above average as investors weighed the debut earnings report against the scale of ongoing investment and a partial lockup expiration scheduled for Thursday that could free roughly 911 million employee and early-investor shares.

SpaceX reported second-quarter revenue of $7.81 billion, up 92% from $4.07 billion a year earlier and well above Wall Street estimates that clustered near $6.8 billion to $6.9 billion. The net loss narrowed to $541 million from $1.01 billion in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA rose 191% to $3.54 billion. The company ended the quarter with approximately $100 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and a backlog of $47.5 billion.

Revenue growth was broad-based. The Connectivity segment, anchored by Starlink, generated $4.29 billion, up 66% year over year, and produced $1.66 billion in operating income. Starlink subscribers doubled to 12 million. The AI segment delivered $2.56 billion in revenue, up 247%, though it recorded a $1.26 billion operating loss. The Space segment contributed $962 million in revenue with a $542 million operating loss, reflecting continued investment in Starship development.

Capital expenditures reached $18.4 billion in the quarter, of which $15.8 billion was directed at AI infrastructure. That level of spending, roughly 235% of quarterly revenue, drew the sharpest focus from investors. Management indicated capital spending would remain elevated at similar levels for at least the next two quarters as the company expands compute capacity, Starship production and next-generation Starlink satellites.

“2026 has been a momentous year so far, and the second quarter demonstrated the true power of SpaceX,” Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in the earnings release. “Revenue growth accelerated across all our business segments and we delivered strong operating leverage, with significant margin expansion led by our new AI compute agreements. Our unparalleled leadership in launch, Starlink subscriber growth, new enterprise and government partnerships, and best-in-class AI infrastructure underscore our ability to drive meaningful scale and deliver attractive returns.”

On the earnings call, Johnsen said the company had already signed an additional $6.7 billion in cloud services contracts in the early weeks of the third quarter and remained on track to reach a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by the end of 2026, including expected contribution from the pending $60 billion acquisition of Cursor. He noted that new compute capital deployments were showing a payback period of less than one year.

Chief Executive Elon Musk described an accelerated timeline for long-term growth. Internal projections for reaching $1 trillion in annual revenue had moved forward to 2030 from 2031, with a non-zero chance of achieving the milestone as early as 2029. Musk said SpaceX expects to end 2026 with more than two gigawatts of compute capacity and closer to 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, relying exclusively on Nvidia hardware for its data centers.

“We’re building AI compute capacity at scale faster than anyone else,” Musk said. On Starship, he stated: “With Starship, our aspirations, and I think we will achieve these aspirations, are to deliver well over 1 million tons to orbit per year, and probably ultimately 10 million tons per year.” He added that the $100 billion annualized revenue run rate target by December “is not a question mark. That’s what we would achieve if we basically did nothing.”

The company also highlighted two successful Starship Version 3 flight tests in the past 90 days, progress toward rapid reusability, the release of Grok 4.5, and more than $6 billion in multi-year U.S. government contracts for Starshield. Cloud services agreements signed in the period totaled $14.1 billion in contracted sales.

Despite the operational strength, investors focused on the capital intensity required to sustain the AI expansion and the near-term supply of shares from the lockup release. The partial unlock on August 6 involves shares held by employees and early investors and is separate from the main 180-day lockup that runs through December and a longer restriction on Musk’s holdings. Analysts and traders had flagged the event as a potential source of volatility in the weeks leading up to the earnings report.

Starlink average revenue per user declined year over year to $66, reflecting expansion into lower-priced international markets even as subscriber growth remained robust. The Space segment showed sequential improvement in revenue but continued to post operating losses tied largely to Starship research and development.

SpaceX completed its initial public offering in June at $135 per share, raising approximately $85.7 billion in net proceeds in what was described as the largest IPO in market history. The company also issued $25 billion in investment-grade senior notes later that month. The stock initially surged above $225 before giving back most of those gains amid concerns over valuation, capital intensity and the approaching unlock of restricted shares.

Wednesday’s decline left the shares below the IPO price and roughly halved from the post-IPO high. Short interest has remained elevated, and options activity showed a pronounced skew toward puts around the $100 and $110 strikes.

Management reiterated that the combination of Starlink cash generation, contracted AI compute demand and a strengthened balance sheet positions the company to fund its multi-year ambitions in launch, connectivity and artificial intelligence while maintaining long-term capital discipline. Investors will now watch the pace of share sales following the lockup release, the trajectory of free cash flow as capital spending continues at elevated levels, and evidence that the AI infrastructure investments are converting into the rapid payback periods management has described.

The first public earnings report delivered clear evidence of rapid top-line growth and expanding adjusted profitability in core areas, yet the market’s reaction underscored the high bar set by the company’s valuation and the scale of investment still required to realize the long-term targets Musk outlined.

Companies bidding for government contracts worth £5m or more will be scored on the jobs and training they create rather than on net zero, equality and diversity measures, under changes to the £90bn public procurement system announced by the Cabinet Office on Wednesday.

The weighting given to the wider benefits a bidder brings, known as social value, will double from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the assessment for contracts at that level. The new 20 per cent score will be based on job creation, replacing the previous set of measures, which covered areas including equality and diversity, net zero and the post-Covid recovery.

Bidders will be given extra credit for creating local jobs that pay above the minimum wage, for training that plugs local skills gaps and, in particular, for offering 45-day work experience placements for young people.

The rules will apply to both British and international firms bidding for central government contracts and take effect from 1 January 2027, with detailed technical guidance due in the autumn, the Cabinet Office said.

The changes come as the government seeks to tackle youth unemployment, with the prime minister, Andy Burnham, saying he wants to create “growth in every postcode”. Burnham used a similar initiative during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show more than a million people aged 16 to 24 were not in education, employment or training in the first three months of 2026. The government has already appointed the former Marks & Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland to rally employers behind 300,000 work experience and training placements for young people.

First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, who is effectively Burnham’s deputy prime minister, said the procurement process in its current form was a “tick-box exercise”.

“Every pound of taxpayer money should be spent in a way that benefits local communities, creating good jobs and giving young people the skills they need for the future,” she said.

“These new rules will ensure the £90 billion that is spent each year through government contracts supports British jobs, skills and people in every postcode.”

Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson said businesses that secure government contracts “have a responsibility to give back”.

“Businesses that benefit from the billions of taxpayer pounds spent by government, will have to create more local jobs and opportunities for young people in their area,” he said.

The Cabinet Office said the threshold for the requirements has been raised to contracts worth more than £1m, so that they do not typically apply to the work smaller firms and local social enterprises bid for. The change follows guidance issued last year urging public sector buyers to award more contracts to small businesses.

Craig Beaumont, executive director at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Lifting the threshold to £1 million ought to see many more small firms winning contracts, as small businesses deliver huge intrinsic social value but they can often struggle to demonstrate this in procurement processes.”

For major contracts, government departments will set a key performance indicator and publish annual progress reports measuring suppliers’ performance against their commitments, the Cabinet Office said.

Green groups criticised the plans. Ami McCarthy, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said protecting the environment and helping young people into work are “mutually beneficial and one shouldn’t come at a cost to the other”.

“Companies should be held to account with environmental targets to help achieve a better future without leaving young workers behind,” they added.

Jamie Young

Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk

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