SpaceX shares rose almost 8% on Monday to their highest level since mid-June, and the gain pushed Elon Musk's net worth back above $1 trillion, CNBC reported. The jump came a few months after the company's record initial public offering.

The move followed a Sunday research note from Morgan Stanley analysts, who described the stock as cheap at its recent price. They pointed to future AI product releases, progress on Starship and more neocloud contracts as reasons for their view. The firm recommends buying the shares and set a $300 price target, about 75% above Monday's $171.09 close. That is the view of the analysts, not a forecast from RoxMag.

The note also named two dates to watch. One is the next planned test flight of Starship, the huge reusable rocket SpaceX is building. The other is the company's third-quarter earnings report, expected in late October. The analysts wrote that a successful catch of the Starship upper stage on that flight would rank as the largest boost to the stock since its market debut. On earlier tests the upper stage came down in the ocean, and it has not yet been proven reusable.

Operations gave the stock some support as well. Late last week SpaceX flew several missions in a single day, among them a NASA crew mission headed for the International Space Station and, on a different launch, Google AI chips bound for orbit.

The company's AI business is also drawing attention. SpaceX acquired Musk's xAI last year and has since bought Cursor. Its own Grok model has not caught up with leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to CNBC, but SpaceX is earning substantial revenue by renting out computing capacity to customers that include Google and Anthropic.

Washington is another source of business. On Wednesday the Pentagon named Musk co-lead of Project Meridian, an effort to identify the weapons, technology and military capabilities the United States may need in future conflicts. SpaceX has earned more than $12.7 billion to date from Defense Department work, according to FedScout.

Musk's wealth is tied to both SpaceX and Tesla. Forbes' real-time billionaires list put his fortune at $1.03 trillion on Monday. SpaceX went public on June 12, and its best close so far, $201.80, came four days later. The stock then drifted lower, bottomed in early August and has since climbed about 58%.