Investment circles are currently experiencing a certain kind of anticipation, but it’s not the hectic, keyboard-pounding kind; rather, it’s the more subdued kind, where serious people are doing serious calculations and trying not to get too excited. Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite business, SpaceX, has secretly submitted an IPO application to the Securities and Exchange Commission. SpaceX is based in a large facility in Hawthorne, California. Its valuation is estimated to be between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion. If all goes according to plan, this will be the biggest IPO in American history, easily surpassing Alibaba’s $22 billion 2014 debut, which at the time seemed enormous.
Although the company hasn’t officially announced a date, the working target is mid-2026, with June being mentioned most frequently by those involved in the process. With a confidential filing, SpaceX’s financial information is kept confidential for at least 15 days prior to the start of the IPO roadshow, which is a series of presentations where the company makes its pitch to institutional investors prior to the actual trading of shares. That opacity is both familiar and frustrating to the typical investor observing from the outside. It’s the same strategy that many well-known private businesses have employed prior to entering public markets, and it usually produces precisely the kind of controlled suspense that turns an eventual launch into an event.
| Company | Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) |
| Founded / HQ | 2002 / Hawthorne, California |
| Founder & CEO | Elon Musk |
| Expected IPO Timing | Mid-2026 (targeting approximately June–July) |
| Target IPO Valuation | $1.75 trillion – $2 trillion |
| Funds to Raise via IPO | Up to $75 billion — potentially largest U.S. IPO ever |
| Retail Investor Float (planned) | Up to 30% of offering (unusually high for a hot IPO) |
| Alphabet’s Stake | ~6.1% (original $900M investment in 2015 at ~$12B valuation) |
| Pre-IPO Fund Options | ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), Baron Partners Fund (BPTRX), Destiny Tech100 (DXYZ) |
| Starlink Subscribers | Over 9 million (as of early 2026) |
| IPO Filing Type | Confidential SEC filing (financials not yet public) |
| IPO Risk Level | High Volatility Expected High Interest |
Right now, the majority of regular investors are more concerned with how to get in before the doors open than with whether SpaceX will succeed. There are viable options, but each has trade-offs that should be considered. About 6.1% of SpaceX is still owned by Alphabet, which invested $900 million in the company back in January 2015 when it was valued at about $12 billion. That stake alone would be worth well over $100 billion if SpaceX achieves its target valuation. Although it’s important to keep in mind that Alphabet is a trillion-dollar company with a lot going on, and SpaceX’s IPO gain would be one line item among many, purchasing Alphabet shares is currently the most accessible and liquid way to hold indirect SpaceX exposure.
A few funds have made SpaceX the focal point of their portfolios for more concentrated exposure. SpaceX makes up about one-third of the Baron Partners Fund’s total holdings, with Tesla coming in second at about 20%. In essence, it’s a wager on Elon Musk’s ecosystem, which some investors find appealing and others find excessively concentrated. $2,000 is the minimum entry amount, or $500 with automatic investments. SpaceX is the largest position in Cathie Wood’s ARK Venture Fund at 17%, ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic. However, because the fund is a closed-end interval fund, redemptions are limited to 5% of outstanding shares per quarter, so you can’t just sell whenever the mood strikes. It is important to acknowledge the existence of this illiquidity.
After SpaceX’s IPO filing announcement, Destiny Tech100, which is traded on the NYSE under the ticker DXYZ, increased by almost 1,200%. Depending on your perspective, this figure may be exciting or concerning. Given that SpaceX owns 16% of its holdings and that nearly half of the fund is in cash equivalents, the math on that kind of surge raises important questions. The market may be pricing in a great deal of optimism that the underlying asset hasn’t yet generated in publicly reported form.
Observing all of this, there’s a sense that SpaceX belongs to a category that most businesses never get to—the kind where a filing rumor causes funds to spike before a single public share has changed hands, and where the name alone shifts markets. That has a lot of weight. There is actual risk involved as well. In the past, IPO stocks have typically increased by 19% on their first trading day, but roughly 25% of them have decreased. According to reports, SpaceX intends to make up to 30% of its offering available to retail investors, which is significantly more than is customary for a “hot” deal. At the very least, this suggests that the opportunity may be larger than anticipated when the time comes. Nobody can yet determine whether the price at that time represents excitement or reality.
