SpaceX’s Biggest Investors Revealed: 23 Firms Control More Than 80% of Its Reported Shares

SpaceX's transition from a closely guarded private company to a Wall Street giant is revealing exactly who owns some of the biggest pieces of Elon Musk's space empire for the very first time.

More than 1,500 investors have now disclosed positions in SpaceX, but the ownership revealed in regulatory filings is heavily concentrated. Just 23 investors control more than 80% of the shares reported, according to a Yahoo Finance analysis published Monday. At the other end of the spectrum, nearly 1,340 investors disclosed positions of fewer than 100,000 shares each, collectively representing less than 1% of reported holdings.

The disclosures come two months after SpaceX began trading publicly under the ticker SPCX on June 12. The company priced its initial public offering at $135 a share and ultimately sold nearly 639 million shares after underwriters exercised their option for additional stock, raising approximately $85.7 billion in gross proceeds.

Among institutional investors, Alphabet stands far above the rest. Google's parent company disclosed more than 551 million SpaceX shares, a position worth roughly $77 billion based on Friday's closing price.

Fidelity reported about 303 million shares, while Gigafund disclosed nearly 172 million and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund held approximately 154 million. Nvidia reported nearly 123 million shares.

Alphabet's enormous stake traces back to an investment made more than a decade ago. The company invested roughly $900 million in SpaceX in 2015, a bet that had increased more than 100-fold in value by the end of June, Reuters reported last week.

Nvidia's position is another notable addition to the shareholder list. The chipmaker's nearly 123 million shares were valued at about $17 billion based on Friday's price, illustrating the increasingly intertwined financial relationships among some of the largest companies in the technology and artificial intelligence industries.

Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard University's endowment, also emerged as a significant investor. Its nearly 13 million SpaceX shares have become the largest individual stock position in its publicly disclosed U.S. equity portfolio, according to Yahoo Finance.

The new filings do not necessarily mean those investors recently bought the shares. Some were longtime SpaceX backers whose holdings are only now appearing in quarterly public-market disclosures following the IPO.

But the ownership revelations are arriving at a particularly sensitive moment for SpaceX stock. Hundreds of millions of shares held by early shareholders are gradually becoming eligible for sale as restrictions imposed around the IPO expire. About 912 million shares became tradable on Aug. 6. Instead of triggering the selloff some investors feared, the stock rose sharply, including a 16% gain the following trading day, according to Yahoo Finance.

The circumstances surrounding the next unlock are different. Approximately 319 million additional shares are scheduled to become eligible for trading on Aug. 20, with further releases expected in September and October.

More than 700 million shares could unlock during September alone, followed by roughly 650 million in October, according to Barron's. SpaceX shares had already fallen dramatically before the first major August unlock, sliding from an intraday high above $225 to around $105. The stock has since rebounded roughly 40% and was climbing more than 5% Monday, putting it back near $150 and above its $135 IPO price.

That recovery changes the calculus for longtime investors. Early shareholders who declined to sell near the stock's lows could soon have another opportunity to cash in after a substantial rebound.

Some major holders, however, are signaling that they are in no hurry to leave. Baillie Gifford, which owns more than 51 million shares and invested in SpaceX well before its public debut, has emphasized its long-term approach.