Cathie Wood’s ARK buys $529.7M of SpaceX on IPO day

On June 12, the first day of SpaceX’s public trading, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest purchased 3.29 million SpaceX shares at the IPO price of $135. The position was worth about $529.7 million at the market close after shares rose roughly 19%. ARK also reduced its Tesla stake that day and trimmed positions in Advanced Micro Devices, Rocket Lab, Roku and Baidu.

ARK first acquired a private position in SpaceX in late 2023 through an internal venture fund, where the stake became the largest holding in that roughly $1 billion vehicle. The IPO allowed ARK to convert the private stake into a public holding and increase its exposure.

SpaceX’s S-1 filing shows an accumulated deficit of $41.3 billion as of March 31 and states the company does not plan to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, intending to reinvest earnings. The filing also shows Starlink, the company’s satellite internet unit, is the only profitable division and has reported rapid revenue growth.

The IPO was priced at $135 and included a retail allocation of about 30% of the offering, several times higher than typical retail allocations. SpaceX closed about 19% above the IPO price on its first trading day, a session that also pushed Elon Musk’s net worth past $1 trillion.

The ARK Innovation ETF is up about 1.61% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained roughly 9% over the same period. The fund recorded about $294 million in net outflows over the past 12 months. An analysis of the fund’s earlier strategies found roughly $7 billion in investor losses between 2014 and 2024.

ARK has a history of buying shares in companies soon after they list, including post-listing purchases of Coinbase and CoreWeave. The SpaceX stake is the largest public position ARK has established from an IPO to date.

SpaceX’s filings and the size of the accumulated deficit indicate the company will need sustained investment to expand Starlink and other operations.