It was hard to read a news story covering the Gulf last week that didn’t contain the word ‘Space X’—with good reason.
Tipped to be the world’s largest IPO with a projected valuation of $1.77 trillion—SpaceX’s IPO is due to take place on Wednesday and is expected to raise roughly $75 billion. Gulf sovereign wealth funds and prominent investors are set to be among the biggest beneficiaries.
The multi-billion-dollar windfalls they are poised to receive will offer a nicely-timed boost to their balance sheets, which have not enjoyed the usual flow of petrodollars since the outbreak of the Iran war.
Zooming out, it marks a significant moment in validating their investment strategies, with the Gulf states ranking among some of the earliest investors in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and xAI—the two companies merged in early February to become a rocket business, satellite internet provider and AI company.
If SpaceX debuts successfully at its expected valuation, it would be one of the clearest examples of Gulf capital backing a transformational technology platform before public markets fully recognized its value.
