Breaking: BlackRock Invests $882M In Elon Musk’s SpaceX IPO

SpaceX’s record-setting public offering made BlackRock one of the biggest institutional investors in the company. The asset manager acquired approximately $882 million in holdings through a number of exchange-traded funds.

BlackRock Goes Big On SpaceX IPO

The biggest funding came in from the iShares AI Innovation and Tech Active ETF, valued over $451 million, per Bloomberg terminal. Other BlackRock-managed funds that included the iShares U.S. Equity Factor Rotation Active ETF, which held nearly $258 million worth of SpaceX stock.

In addition, iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF invested almost $67.8 million. Moreover, BlackRock’s iShares U.S. Thematic Rotation Active ETF with about $47.1 million.

“A ton of ETFs bought $SPCX yesterday (esp BlackRock via $BIA w/ $450m buy),” said Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a post on X.

Balchunas added that the SpaceX stock saw a rapid splurge of ETF investors after IPO launch. “There were 4 ETF holders on Fri morning but now there are 40. Wild,” he wrote.

The rate of the accumulation was a sign of a massive transition in the ETF market to show that actively managed funds that can quickly adjust to new listings, the analyst said. Balchunas compared the SpaceX IPO launch to that of Meta Platforms and Alibaba.

“I remember w $META and $BABA it took weeks for it to enter ETFs,” Balchunas stated. “Back then tho almost everything was passive governed by index rules. Today 60% of the products are active, and they don’t have rules, can buy/sell whenever whatever pretty much,” he added.

Overview of SPCX Stock Performance

The heavy institutional demand came in the wake of the record-setting initial public offering by SpaceX. It issued 556.5 million SPCX shares at $135 apiece to raise around $75 billion. Prior to trading, the offering valued SpaceX at around $1.77 trillion.

Investor enthusiasm continued during the opening day of the stock. The SpaceX stock opened at $172, but closed at $160.95, still much higher than IPO price. The stock remained on an uptrend in extended trading with over 3% gains in the after hours.

Alongside BlackRock, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest also poured in around $530 million to buy SPCX stock.