Alphabet’s early investment in SpaceX has surged more than 100-fold, with the Google parent disclosing a stake worth about $94.2 billion at the end of June.
Alphabet invested $900 million in Elon Musk’s rocket company in 2015, giving it a rare benchmark for measuring the dramatic increase in value of an early SpaceX investment.
According to Alphabet’s latest filing, the company held 551.2 million SpaceX shares at the end of the second quarter. Based on SpaceX’s June 30 closing price of $170.86, the stake was worth approximately $94.2 billion.
At SpaceX’s Thursday closing price of $141.29, Alphabet’s disclosed holding would be worth about $77.9 billion — still roughly 86.5 times its original investment.
Alphabet has emerged as the largest reported institutional shareholder of SpaceX following the company’s $86 billion initial public offering in June, according to a Reuters analysis of quarterly regulatory filings made public so far.
Fidelity Investments was the second-largest reported institutional holder, with 302.6 million SpaceX shares, followed by Gigafund Management with 171.8 million, Baillie Gifford with 51.4 million and BlackRock with 51 million shares.
Together, the five largest reported holders accounted for nearly three-quarters of the SpaceX shares disclosed in the filings, highlighting the concentration of institutional ownership among a small group of investors.
SpaceX went public on June 12 at $135 a share. Its stock has since fallen from its end-June level, closing at $141.29 on Thursday, 4.7% above its IPO price but 17.3% below its June 30 close.
The quarterly filings provide new insight into the scale of investments held by SpaceX’s backers as the company transitioned from a closely held startup into a publicly traded company.
However, the data has limitations. Securities and Exchange Commission 13F filings are compiled quarterly and disclosed within six weeks of the end of each quarter, meaning they do not reflect purchases or sales made by large institutional investors after June 30.
The filings also do not show investors’ lock-up status or whether they intend to sell shares acquired before the IPO.
“It’s very, very difficult to tease out which of these institutions were holding pre-IPO shares,” said Steve Sosnick, market strategist at Interactive Brokers.
Sosnick said SpaceX remained one of the most actively traded stocks among Interactive Brokers customers, with the shares receiving renewed buying interest after concerns over the first lock-up expiry failed to materialise.
Retail investors, who are not required to disclose their SpaceX holdings to the SEC, became net sellers of the stock on Friday for the first time since the IPO, according to Vanda Research.
The research firm, which tracks self-directed individual investors, said retail investors sold a net $4.5 million worth of SpaceX shares that day.
SpaceX shares fell 3% on Thursday but have gained about 30% since August 5, underscoring the stock’s sharp volatility since its market debut.
Boluwatife Enome
Follow us on:
