Investors itching to get a piece of Elon Musk’s very valuable and very impressive space franchise SpaceX can now do so, even though it’s a privately held company.
ARK Invest’s ARK Venture Fund announced on Wednesday that, as of Oct. 31, it was invested in SpaceX.
The fund is open to both institutional and individual investors. Individuals can put in as little as $500 through a financial services app called “Titan.” Barron’s managed to do so in only minutes.
ARK Venture is a close-ended fund that invests in both public and privately held companies that are “relevant to the Fund’s investment theme of disruptive innovation.”
SpaceX qualifies as disruptive. It pioneered reusable rockets, dramatically lowering the cost of reaching space. From its founding about 20 years ago, it has grown to be the dominant space-launch services provider in the world by a stunningly wide margin. SpaceX has launched almost 80 orbital missions so far in 2023, about half of the world’s total.
SpaceX has also grown to one of the most valuable aerospace companies on the planet worth some $150 billion based on private-market transactions. It isn’t easy for most investors to own parts of private companies. ARK’s fund is one way to do that.
The fund, of course, holds other positions, so it isn’t a pure-play bet on SpaceX. How much SpaceX the fund owns, and what it paid aren’t immediately available. ARK didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Valuing privately held companies is difficult, and the fund isn’t as liquid as most investments. Investors can’t redeem their entire investment when they want, and can only get some of their money back on a quarterly basis. The lack of liquidity needs to be considered before buying in.
Still, the option to invest in the leading space franchise is now out there and much easier.
Shares of Elon Musk’s other company
Tesla
(ticker: TSLA) were soaring in early trading, up 4.5% while the
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
were up 1.1% and 1.2%, respectively. Musk commented on Twitter that a $4 trillion market capitalization was possible. That’s roughly 5 to 6 times the level of today’s valuation.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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