Shares of little-known SPI Energy Co. jumped by as much as 4,000% on Wednesday, rising from around $1 to as high as $46.67.
What happened: SPI announced it was launching a unit to design and develop electric vehicles and charging solutions called EdisonFuture — a nod to electric vehicle companies Nikola and Tesla, which are both named after Nikola Tesla, a rival of Thomas Edison.
- SPI ended the day up 1,237%, at $14 a share and triggered at least seven volatility trading halts over four hours, Bloomberg reported, noting that trading volume hit nearly 350 million shares, more than 700 times its usual activity.
- The company has about 15 million shares outstanding, and a float of about 7.4 million, according to Bloomberg's data.