GameStop shares rallied by a colossal 92% at the time of Tuesday’s close, resulting in a record price tag of $147.98 per share. The gaming merchandise retail chain now has a market cap of over $10 billion.
The beginning of this surge could be traced back to last week’s clash between short-sellers and Reddit sub-community WallStreetBets, which created a very large short squeeze on the stock. This means that those who usually bet against the shares were pressured into purchasing more in order to resist further losses.
This clash elicited a response from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who took to Twitter to publicly acknowledge this steep rise. At this point, GameStop’s stocks had surged by another 50% in after-hours trading.
Musk was not the only business mogul to comment on the recent spike in GameStop shares. Billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya tweeted that he purchased $115 call options in GameStop as he betted that the stock would go higher.
Prior to the current short squeeze debacle, shares in the consumer electronics company were valued at approximately $20 apiece. In July of 2020, GameStop’s stocks were as low as $4 each.
