SpaceX IPO Looms: How Investors Are Gaining Exposure Ahead of a Potential Listing
As reports indicate SpaceX could file for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as this week, the anticipated debut is already shaping up to be a historic event. According to a report from The Information, advisers to the Elon Musk-led company suggest the offering could raise over $75 billion. This would position it among the largest IPOs ever recorded. While the general public may have to wait for shares, several investment funds already hold significant stakes in the private company, offering a way for investors to get indirect exposure ahead of a potential Nasdaq listing and possible inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 index.
Funds with Major SpaceX Stakes
For investors seeking exposure, several actively managed funds have built substantial positions in SpaceX. These concentrated bets reflect a high-conviction, high-risk strategy centered on the company’s long-term potential in space infrastructure and exploration.
Baron Partners Fund: A Dual Musk Bet
The Baron Partners Fund (BPTRX) represents one of the most aggressive allocations. SpaceX is its largest holding, comprising nearly one-third of the total portfolio. Combined with its stake in Tesla (TSLA), the two Musk-associated companies account for more than half of the fund’s assets. This dual concentration has led to significant volatility. The fund’s retail shares declined approximately 5% in 2026, per Morningstar data. However, its strong 24% gain in 2025 placed it in the top 7% of its peer group, highlighting the potential rewards of this concentrated approach.
Baron Focused Growth Fund: Another Concentrated Play
Similarly, the Baron Focused Growth Fund (BFGIX) holds SpaceX at roughly a quarter of its portfolio. Tesla is its second-largest position at just over 6%. The fund’s institutional shares are down more than 4% so far in 2026. This follows three consecutive years of double-digit gains, as noted by Morningstar, underscoring the performance swings common with such a focused strategy.
ARK Venture Fund: Disruptive Innovation Focus
Cathie Wood’s ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX) maintains an 18% allocation to SpaceX. This aligns with the fund’s broader mandate to invest in disruptive private companies. Its portfolio also includes other prominent private firms like AI developer Anthropic, data firm Databricks, and semiconductor company Groq. ARKVX has performed strongly, gaining over 6% in 2026 after a 55%+ surge in 2025, demonstrating how SpaceX contributes to its overall venture capital-style growth objective.
Private-Public Crossover ETF: A Dedicated Strategy
The Private-Public Crossover ETF (XOVR) offers a unique, ETF-based approach to this asset class. It has nearly 45% of its assets invested in SpaceX, an exceptionally high concentration for a diversified vehicle. For perspective, its next largest holding, Nvidia (NVDA), is around 4%. This extreme focus has hurt performance recently; the ETF has dropped about 15% year-to-date in 2026. It did gain nearly 12% in 2025 but ranked in the bottom quartile of its category, per Morningstar, illustrating the specific risks of a crossover strategy heavily weighted to a single pre-IPO name.
Direct Stock Play: EchoStar’s Stake
For investors looking at publicly traded equities, EchoStar (SATS) provides a more direct, though smaller, conduit. The company owns approximately a 3% stake in SpaceX. Following the IPO report, EchoStar shares jumped 8% in a single day. The stock is now up roughly 10% in 2026, building on a staggering 375% rally in 2025. This reaction shows how market sentiment around a SpaceX IPO can immediately impact the share prices of its known private investors.
Weighing the Opportunities and Risks
The imminent IPO prospectus will provide critical details on valuation, share structure, and lock-up periods. For now, the existing fund holdings reveal a common theme: a willingness to accept extreme concentration risk for the potential of outsized returns tied to one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Prospective investors in these funds should carefully consider how a single holding’s fate—whether through a successful public debut or a market stumble—could dominate overall portfolio performance.
