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.