RZLV: Post-Earnings Short Interest Rebuilds as Borrow Costs Spike

Rezolve AI has emerged from its June 26 earnings print with short interest rebuilt, borrow costs at their highest level in months, and the stock down 11% on the week — the setup bears had been leaning into has now played out, and the question is whether shorts hold or cover.

The positioning story has shifted materially since the pre-earnings note. Short interest jumped 10.8% in a single session on June 25, taking it back to 16.6% of free float — roughly 50 million shares — the highest level in the 30-day window. That reversal is significant: what had looked like gradual covering through mid-June (from 48 million shares down to 41.9 million by June 18) has now fully unwound, with the position rebuilt past where it started. The ORTEX short score has climbed to 84.7, its highest reading in the available data, reflecting the weight of elevated short interest, tight borrow, and deteriorating price momentum together.

The borrow market confirms this is not a casual rebuild. Cost to borrow reached 114.8% on June 25 — more than double where it stood a week ago and roughly seven times the level from early June. Availability, at 11.8%, remains tight: roughly one share available for every eight already borrowed. That is a meaningful loosening from the extreme 0.07% availability hit on June 12 — the 52-week low — but it is far from a relaxed lending market. Paying annualised rates above 100% to hold a short position in a stock that has already fallen 7% over the past month is an expensive conviction trade. Options positioning has also moved to its most defensive reading of the past year: the put/call ratio hit 0.30 on June 26, above its 20-day average of 0.27 and at the 52-week high, though the z-score of 1.67 suggests this is elevated rather than extreme.

The bull-vs-bear debate on RZLV centres on a stark growth-versus-quality split. Growth remains the standout data point — a reported 1,058% year-on-year sales increase keeps the growth pillar elevated — but quality metrics tell a different story, with a Piotroski f-score of just 3, negative ROA, and an EV/EBITDA that is deeply negative and worsening. The company's founder and chairman Daniel Wagner bought $3.25 million worth of stock in early April at $4.00 per share — now well above the current $2.41 close — and a director added a further $265,000 in May at $2.78. That insider support is notable context, but the stock has continued lower since both purchases. BlackRock added 2 million shares as recently as May 31, bringing its stake to 3% of the company, which provides some institutional credentialing, but the top of the register remains concentrated among named individuals rather than institutional managers.

Among correlated peers, the week has been broadly painful. AISP fell 10.9% on Friday alone and is down 20.7% on the week. REKR dropped 12.9% over the same period. SOUN shed 10%. The one exception was PAR, up 10.5% on the week — an idiosyncratic move that did not lift the group. RZLV's 11.4% weekly decline fits squarely within the range of its closest peers, suggesting sector-level pressure rather than company-specific collapse, though the short position rebuild on top of the move is a RZLV-specific development.

With the June 26 earnings event now behind it and the next scheduled print on July 30, the focus turns to whether the cost to borrow at 114% begins attracting short covering — or whether the post-earnings price action emboldens bears to hold through the summer.