- As of 2024, SpaceX has approximately 1.85 billion outstanding shares, priced at $185 per share.
- It has raised a total of 9.8 billion in funding through 38 rounds.
- During the latest internal stock purchase event, SpaceX is valued at $350 billion.
- Since it’s a private corporation, you can’t buy shares from the stock market.
SpaceX is now among the world’s most valuable private companies. Its innovative approach, reusable rocket technology, and ambitious goals, such as the colonization of Mars, have captivated the world’s attention and attracted significant investments.
Since the company is growing at an impressive rate, many investors want a piece of SpaceX. But can you directly buy SpaceX stock?
The answer is NO.
SpaceX is a private company and is not listed on any American Stock Exchange, meaning you can’t purchase its shares from the stock market.
However, there are many shareholders of SpaceX, just not retail investors. Most of them are investment firms that invest in private corporations, and some are wealthy individuals, like Elon Musk (CEO) himself.
More specifically, SpaceX has been funded by 96+ investors, including Alphabet, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Matthew Brown Companies, and Intesa Sanpaolo.
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Who Owns SpaceX?
Elon Musk’s trust holds 42% of the outstanding shares of SpaceX and has 79% voting control of the outstanding stock.
No other investor owns more than 11% of SpaceX. Google parent Alphabet has a 7.5% stake in the company. Other major shareholders include Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Capricorn.
Musk Has No Plan For Filing IPO
Elon Musk has several plans for SpaceX, but filling an IPO is not one of them. He wants to reduce the cost of rocket launches by a factor of ten, continue commercial satellite launches and US government missions, build a global satellite internet service called Starlink, and eventually put humans on Mars.
To fund the development of these technologies, SpaceX has raised money through a combination of equity financing and debt.
In 2019 alone, according to CNBC, SpaceX secured over $1 billion in financing. This capital was instrumental in bringing Starlink to operational status, a project involving over 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit. The revenue generated from Starlink will be reinvested in developing more advanced spacecraft and rockets.
The six @Starlink satellites on this mission with Direct to Cell capability will further global connectivity and help to eliminate dead zones → https://t.co/FgiJ7LOYdK pic.twitter.com/zFy7SrpsYs
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 3, 2024
How Much Is SpaceX Stock Worth?
SpaceX’s valuation has increased steadily as it has raised funding to develop advanced rockets and spacecraft over the past decade. The company has been able to draw money from private investors with ease.
In 2019, the Series K funding brought in $536 million, raising the value of SpaceX to $33.3 billion. At that time, SpaceX had roughly 160 million outstanding shares, priced at $204 per share.
Both equity raises in 2019 were oversubscribed: the company raised $100 million more than they were looking for. In its April 2019 recent round of funding, investor demand was so high that SpaceX reportedly could have raised an additional $400 million.
In February 2021, SpaceX concluded an equity funding round of $850 million, boosting its valuation to $74 billion. The new funds were secured at $419.99 per share, marking a 60% increase from the previous funding round in August 2020, where $2 billion was raised at a $46 billion valuation.
By December 2022, SpaceX secured $750 million in a new funding round, reaching a valuation of $137 billion. The lead investor in that round was Andreessen Horowitz.
In January 2024, SpaceX’s valuation further increased to $180 billion, positioning it as the world’s second-most valuable startup, trailing behind ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, which held a valuation of $268 billion.
In December 2024, SpaceX reached a valuation of $350 billion during an internal stock purchase event, making it the most valuable private startup worldwide. This valuation marks a significant leap from its previous valuation of $210 billion in June 2024, representing a 67% increase.
The internal stock sale involved SpaceX offering to buy insider shares at $185 per share, with the company itself purchasing up to $500 million worth of shares as part of the $1.25 billion transaction.
SpaceX Revenue
In 2018, SpaceX’s revenue stood at $2.2 billion (a 69% increase from the previous year). It had an EBITDA (short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) margin of 10.8%.
This figure was surprisingly close to the 13.5% and 13% EBITDA margin earned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, despite the fact that SpaceX’s rocket launch costs much, much less than its rivals.
Moving to 2022, SpaceX’s annual revenue surged to $4.6 billion. In the first quarter of 2023, the company reported a $55 million profit on revenue of $1.5 billion.
Looking ahead, SpaceX is projected to generate approximately $15 billion in revenue in 2024 across its rocket launch and Starlink businesses.
SpaceX Revenue graph from 2023 to 2018
SpaceX Revenue graph from 2020 to 2023
The company has been working to further reduce the launch cost by making rockets fully reusable, just like airplanes. If successful, the cost of access to space will be reduced by up to 100 times.
Furthermore, Musk believes that Starlink could generate more than ten times the revenue that SpaceX’s business of launching rockets could. If everything goes according to the plan, revenue from Starlink could be more than NASA’s annual budget.
“Total internet connectivity revenue in the world is about $1 trillion and we think maybe we can access about 3%” with Starlink. – Elon Musk
There Are Ways To Invest In SpaceX
Unreleased image from 2010 | Credit: SpaceX
1. Invest in Alphabet
You can indirectly invest in SpaceX by investing in Alphabet, one of its part-owners. Alphabet, along with Fidelity, invested $1 billion into SpaceX for 10% ownership of the private space agency.
Therefore, in theory, owning shares of Alphabet is a way to indirectly grab a piece of the extraterritorial action. It might be a smart financial move if you buy shares at a fair price.
In 2023, Alphabet’s revenue reached $297 billion, accompanied by a net operating cash flow of $78.7 billion. The gross profit for the trailing twelve months amounted to $166.03 billion, reflecting a 4.91% year-over-year increase.
Beyond the financial benefits, investing in Alphabet stock also provides the added bonus of owning a share of its suite of products, including Google, Android, YouTube, and its AI projects.
2. Invest in Baillie Gifford Trusts
You can invest in Baillie Gifford, an investment management firm headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It gives you indirect access to SpaceX through two of its investment trusts.
- Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust: Traded on the London Stock Exchange, this trust has a 0.8% exposure to SpaceX.
- Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust focuses on investments in technology and innovation. The trust provides you with a 1.6% exposure to SpaceX. And similar to the previous trust, it is also traded on the London Stock Exchange.
3. Invest in ARK Venture Fund
One can gain exposure to SpaceX by investing in the Ark Venture Fund, which allocates 12.4% of its assets to SpaceX. Beyond SpaceX, the fund’s largest holdings include Blockdaemon, OpenAI, Epic Games, Freenome, and Relation Therapeutics.
The Ark Venture Fund invests in both public and privately-held companies and is accessible to both accredited and retail investors. Accredited investors can invest directly through the Ark website, while retail investors must open an account with SoFi to participate in the fund.
4. Invest in venture capital funds
Several Venture capital funds, such as Valor Equity Partners, Gigafund, and Founders Fund, hold or have held stakes in SpaceX.
Founders Fund, for example, has shown interest in disruptive technologies. It was co-founded by popular figures like Peter Thiel, who is known for his involvement in PayPal and early investments in companies like Facebook.
Traditionally, venture capital has been more accessible to high-net-worth individuals, private wealth management firms, and investment banks due to the illiquidity and risk associated with early-stage investments.
However, in recent years, crowdfunding platforms have made it feasible for small investors to participate in venture capital opportunities.
Unlike the conventional venture capital model, where startups pitch to investment companies, crowdfunding platforms provide a more straightforward process for both investors and startups. They allow retail investors to pool their money with others, collectively contributing to startup funding.
These are some of the indirect ways you can invest in SpaceX. But before you put your hard-earned money into the stock market, be sure to diversify your portfolio at the lowest risk possible.
Look for Competitors
The other good option is to invest in companies within the broader space industry or those involved in aerospace or space exploration. Some potential competitors in the same industry as SpaceX include:
Lockheed Martin is a publicly traded company, and its shares are traded on major stock exchanges, including the NYSE. It’s a major aerospace and defense company involved in space-related projects, such as satellite systems and space exploration technologies.
Boeing is another aerospace and defense company that traded on major stock exchanges. It has been one of the largest exporters in the United States by dollar value.
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is a publicly traded company that designs and manufactures aircraft engines, avionics systems, missile systems, cybersecurity solutions, and various technologies related to aerospace and defense.
Blue Origin is a private company that focuses on reusable rocket technology and aims to reduce the cost of space travel. Like SpaceX, you can invest in Blue Origin through participation in private funding rounds if such opportunities are available.
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