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SpaceX shares dropped $12.61, or 9.28%, to $123.31 on Thursday, deepening a selloff that began after Tuesday’s midterm elections. The fall cut SpaceX’s market value to about $1.66 trillion and left the stock roughly 45% below its $226 record high. Investors fear Democratic control of Congress could block a merger with Tesla that would give Elon Musk most of the voting power in a combined company. One Texas senator reportedly said Democrats will go after Musk. SpaceX’s push into AI computing has also left it exposed to the wider data centre selloff, along with its planned Terafab chip plant in Texas and a $40 billion chip financing deal. The decline came despite strong results. Third-quarter revenue jumped 161% to $14.58 billion, and the company earned $4.4 billion after losing $1.1 billion a year earlier. The post-election drop in SpaceX and Tesla has reportedly cut Musk’s wealth by $33 billion.

Qualcomm shares fell more than 12% on Thursday after a soft outlook, leading a broad slide in chip stocks. The company narrowly beat fourth-quarter profit forecasts but expects first-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.15 to $2.35 a share, against estimates of $2.27, with revenue of $10.4 billion to $11.2 billion. Smartphone chips, its largest business, were hit hard. Handset sales dropped 26% to $5.14 billion, missing estimates, as rising memory costs pushed up phone prices and hurt demand despite Qualcomm raising its own prices in September. Its CEO said the problem is supply, not demand. Other chipmakers sold off sharply. AMD fell about 15%, Micron 14.6%, Arm 12.5% and Intel 7.7%, as investors worried that Democrats’ plans for AI regulation could slow data centre spending.

Shares of Rheinmetall fell nearly 17% on Thursday after the German defence group lowered its 2026 forecast for the second time since August. The company now expects sales of about €13.2 billion, below its earlier range of €13.7 billion to €14.2 billion, and an operating margin near 18.5% instead of 19%. Rheinmetall blamed delays to the German army’s Arminius order for Boxer armoured vehicles, now expected next year, along with setbacks in artillery ammunition acceptance tests. Advance payments will slip into 2027, hurting its cash conversion goal, and revenue from its partnership with Dutch firm Destinus has also been delayed. RBC called the update clearly negative and said it may add to doubts about traditional defence makers. Third-quarter sales still rose 32% to €3.15 billion. The stock is now down about 46% this year.

CVS Health will break itself into two separate publicly traded companies by the first half of 2028, unwinding the $78 billion Aetna takeover that created the healthcare giant in 2018. One company, keeping the CVS Health name and led by CEO David Joyner, will hold the Aetna insurance arm, the Caremark pharmacy benefit manager, Oak Street Health, Signify Health and the specialty drug unit. The other, called CVS Pharmacy, will run about 9,000 retail stores under group president Prem Shah. Current shareholders will receive stock in both. Investors reacted badly, sending shares down more than 12% on Wednesday, though Joyner said the split comes from a position of strength. Third-quarter sales rose to $108.40 billion, beating forecasts. Leerink Partners’ Michael Cherny said the plan reflects how much the pharmacy business has stabilised.

SpaceX shares fell 1.19% in premarket trading on Thursday to $134.30, dropping below their initial public offering price for the first time, after a 3.81% slide on Wednesday left them at $135.92. Some reports showed the stock as low as $133.22 in extended trading. Investors are weighing the risk of tougher oversight now that Democrats control Congress. Elon Musk’s close ties to the Trump administration, including his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency, have drawn criticism from Democrats. SpaceX’s Starshield military network also faces questions after Ukraine briefly lost access to Starlink and Starshield services in October. Democratic calls for stricter AI rules and environmental concerns over Musk’s data centres add further pressure. The stock is now about 41% below its $226 record high. Tesla shares also fell.

Canva is reorganising its business in a move that affects 1,271 employees, about 22% of its global workforce, co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced on November 4. The overhaul comes as growth slows and the design platform adjusts to the rise of AI tools. Not everyone affected will lose their job. Some employees will move into new roles, others may be asked to relocate, and some will choose to leave. Canva is offering departing staff a generous exit package that includes at least six months of pay, the option to keep their MacBooks, one year of LinkedIn Premium, career support and grants of $10,000. Perkins described the decision as the hardest moment in Canva’s 13-year history.

Shares of Australian data centre operator NextDC jumped as much as 47% to A$9.60 on Thursday after Goodman Group and US-listed Digital Realty sought to build stakes of up to 9.9% each in the company. NextDC said in a filing that the pair ran an aftermarket bookbuild on Wednesday, offering A$9.50 a share. The board called the approach opportunistic, as it came just two weeks after NextDC flagged a power supply delay at its M3 Melbourne facility and cut its fiscal 2027 guidance. NextDC said it does not yet know how many shares were acquired. Goodman and Digital Realty said they have no current plan to launch a takeover but kept the option open. The surge contrasted with US data centre stocks, where CoreWeave fell about 9% and Iren lost 11.2% on fears of tighter rules after the Democratic sweep.