Elon Musk’s SpaceX has emerged as the dominant force in commercial space launch services, satellite internet, and reusable rocket technology. As a privately held company, financial gains from that dominance have been limited to a small circle of institutional investors, but that’s finally about to change. SpaceX reportedly filed for an IPO confidentially in April, but on Wednesday, the company filed officially and publicly. Prospective investors can now read the full prospectus here. It states that the company will offer shares of its Class A common stock, trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX” on the Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas exchanges. A recent Reuters report suggests SpaceX is aiming to list its shares as early as June 12. The anticipation has everyone asking the same question: Should I invest? For this Giz Asks, we asked experts to weigh in on the potential risks and rewards of investing in SpaceX. While each of them acknowledged SpaceX’s technological lead, they also warned that valuation, timing, and execution risk could undermine returns for public investors.
Daniel Maguire Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) and research analyst primarily supporting autonomous technology and robotics strategy at ARK Invest. A lot of companies talk about going public, we’ve seen the IPO craze. But what makes SpaceX different is the lack of competition. What I mean by that is SpaceX landed a booster 10 years ago and has executed almost perfectly on reusability since. The closest competitor—Blue Origin—just landed a booster a couple of months ago. So while other companies are starting to figure out partial reusability, SpaceX is full steam ahead with full reusability in its Starship program. We think SpaceX is probably one of the most compelling private companies globally, not just in terms of launch capabilities, but also in terms of Starlink internet connectivity. They offer direct-to-cell, which provides mobile coverage in dead zones around the globe. More recently, SpaceX has shown interest in orbital data centers, which could meaningfully change the AI race. Every investor has a different financial situation and risk tolerance. What I would strongly recommend everyone to do is educate themselves about SpaceX. Last year, ARK Invest collaborated with a company called Mach33 to put out an open-source SpaceX valuation model for that very purpose. However, our model does not include anything on orbital data centers, and that’s a potential additional upside to what’s out there. SpaceX’s core strengths are its 10-year advantage on the launch side and its multi-dimensional innovation platform. We think SpaceX is really a generational company that could produce foundational infrastructure for both global connectivity and AI compute over the next decade. Jay Ritter Director of the IPO Initiative and professor emeritus of the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business. Ritter is known as “Mr. IPO” for his work on initial public offerings, which he studies in addition to asset pricing, valuation, investment banking, and capital structure.
