The disclosure makes Alphabet the largest reported institutional shareholder of SpaceX following the company’s $86 billion initial public offering in June, according to a Reuters analysis of publicly available quarterly filings.
Several other major investors have also disclosed their SpaceX holdings following the IPO, including early backer Fidelity Investments, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Hancock Prospecting, the investment company controlled by Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
The filings offer a rare glimpse into the enormous positions accumulated by investors that backed SpaceX before it became a publicly traded company. They also demonstrate how dramatically the value of some of those early investments has increased over the years.
Alphabet’s position is particularly notable because the company publicly disclosed its original $900 million investment, providing a clear benchmark against which the value of its current holding can be measured.
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 Thursday’s closing price, Alphabet’s disclosed stake would be worth about $77.9 billion. Even at that level, the investment would be worth roughly 86.5 times the company’s original $900 million outlay.
Alphabet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fidelity Among Major SpaceX Holders
Fidelity Investments was the second-largest reported institutional holder, with 302.6 million SpaceX shares. It was followed by Gigafund Management with 171.8 million shares, Baillie Gifford with 51.4 million and BlackRock with 51 million.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reported holding 154.1 million shares, valued at approximately $26.3 billion at the end of June. Hancock Prospecting disclosed a smaller but still substantial holding of 8 million shares, worth about $1.4 billion at the time.
The five largest reported institutional holders — Alphabet, Fidelity, Gigafund Management, Baillie Gifford and BlackRock — accounted for nearly three-quarters of the SpaceX shares reported in the filings, underscoring the concentration of institutional ownership among a relatively small group of investors.
However, the figures do not provide a complete picture of current ownership. The 13F filings are compiled quarterly and released up to six weeks after the end of each quarter, meaning they do not reflect purchases or sales made by major institutional investors after June 30.
There is also uncertainty over which investors acquired their positions before SpaceX went public, as well as when those shares may become eligible for sale in public markets.
“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 also noted that the filings do not reveal whether investors remain subject to lock-up restrictions or whether they intend to sell their pre-IPO holdings and realise profits.
SpaceX Shares Retreat After IPO
SpaceX began trading publicly on June 12 at $135 a share. Its stock subsequently climbed to $170.86 by the end of June before giving back some of those gains.
The shares closed at $141.29 on Thursday, leaving them 4.7% above the IPO price but 17.3% below the June 30 closing level.
SpaceX remains one of the most actively traded stocks among Interactive Brokers customers, according to Sosnick. He said the stock received a “fresh jolt of buying last week when market fears about what would happen when the first lockup expiry arrived proved to be unfounded.”
Retail investors, who are not required to report their SpaceX holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, have also remained active. Vanda Research said self-directed individual investors became net sellers of SpaceX shares on Friday for the first time since the IPO, selling a net $4.5 million worth of stock.
Despite the recent volatility, SpaceX shares have gained about 30% since August 5, highlighting the intense investor interest surrounding the newly listed company.
Separately, SpaceX disclosed in a regulatory filing that Musk continues to own a 48.4% stake in the company.
For Alphabet, however, SpaceX represents more than just another technology investment. Its decade-old bet on Musk’s space venture has evolved into one of the most valuable strategic investments in the company’s portfolio, illustrating the extraordinary returns that early investors can achieve when a privately held technology company eventually reaches the public markets.