SpaceX headquarters at Hawthorne, California. Credit: Steve Jurvetson via Wikimedia Commons
Elon Musk's SpaceX holds sway over the emerging space economy in a way that has more in common with notorious colonial-era trading companies than the competitive markets of today's textbooks, according to a new study.
In 2025, SpaceX had a market share of around 75% of everything humanity sent into space, according to calculations led by Dr. Alessio Terzi from the University of Cambridge's Bennett School of Public Policy.
This may surpass the East India Company's share of global tonnage shipped between Europe and Asia when the British company ruled over India in the 1820s, which research suggests was around 72%.
Terzi, an economist, worked with historian Dr. Stefano Marcuzzi to compare space launch data with historical data on major trading companies between 1500 and 1800.
