Buy or stand by? What investing pros are saying about investing in SpaceX's IPO.
Buy or stand by? What investing pros are saying about investing in SpaceX's IPO.
William Edwards,Alex NicollMon, June 8, 2026 at 9:10 AM UTC
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Michael Yanow/NurPhoto via Getty Images -
SpaceX's IPO this week aims to raise $75 billion, valuing the company at $1.75 trillion.
That will make it the largest IPO in history.
Investing pros mostly told Business Insider they'd be wary of buying the stock on day one.
The official numbers are out for SpaceX's IPO: Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company is aiming to raise $75 billion when it comes to market later this week, putting its valuation at $1.75 trillion.
It'll be the largest IPO ever, and it's certainly in the running for the most-hyped listing of all time.
But that type of anticipation is a double-edged sword. Soaring investor excitement can turn into volatility to chase the hype and cash in early gains. There's also the question of a historic valuation for a company that is not profitable.
So, for anyone wondering whether to buy the stock when it starts trading or hold off, we've rounded up the thoughts of eight investing pros to help you decide.
Here's what they had to say.
Dhruv Maniktala, CIO at True North Advisors & Western Alternative Strategies
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Maniktala's firm has had exposure to SpaceX through private market vehicles since 2019, "at much lower valuations," he said.
The stock price could shoot up because of "retail interest," making it a great investment, but he said it's not for his firm.
"At this point, we are sellers rather than buyers," Maniktala said. "To justify its valuation, SpaceX will need to grow revenue by 30x in 4 years and still trade at 25 times free cash flow, assuming that the stock does not go up at all from IPO."
Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors
SpaceX's Starship 39 rocket launches from Starbase on May 22, 2026.RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images
Would you buy: Yes
Link said she would buy the stock without hesitation on the first day of trading, with one big caveat: buy a small 2% allocation and forget it.
The "frenzy" surrounding the stock may lead to short-term volatility, she said, and the company is "impossible to value" in traditional terms, requiring investors to "be creative" with valuations based on their own estimates of the firm's total addressable market, or the maximum total revenue it'd be able to generate.
It shouldn't be your whole portfolio, but Link would recommend getting some "skin in the game" in case Musk's vision of satellite data centers and global connectivity comes to pass.
"I don't think you want to be against the next huge theme," Link said.
Andy VandenBerg, founder of VDB Wealth
Michael Yanow/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Vandenberg said he'd hold off for now, noting that tech stocks typically get crushed in the first 12 months after their IPOs, citing data from Truist.
"If you look at the last 30 major tech IPOs, 57% traded up over the first week. However, the max drawdown in the first year averaged 55%," he said. "So, if you're really bullish on the company and its long-term prospects, I advise clients that there will likely be a more attractive opportunity to invest in the business."
Robert R. Johnson, professor of finance at Creighton University
Michael Yanow/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Johnson said he "wouldn't touch" the SpaceX IPO, and recommended the same for most investors. That's because the company's valuation assumes all of its growth projections play out perfectly.
While the stock could jump thanks to demand from major indexes adding SpaceX as a constituent—some of which are doing so quicker than usual—or due to excitement around the track record of Elon Musk's companies, Johnson said it's still too risky an investment.
"Fans of Elon Musk have driven Tesla valuations beyond what the fundamentals would otherwise suggest, and SpaceX may experience the same effect," he said. "Having said that, I would suggest steering clear of this IPO."
Joel Shulman, Founder/CIO of ERShares and professor at Babson College
AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Would you buy: Yes
Shulman's ETF, XVRO, which he said was the first ETF to put private shares on the public market, already owns shares of SpaceX. But he doesn't think all the gains have already been made.
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"It is 100% going to open at a premium," he said.
In his view, Elon Musk may be the greatest entrepreneur of all time, describing his vision of data centers in space, with lower cooling costs and cheap solar power, as "game over," and a culmination of the business's three main engines: rockets, Starlink, and xAI.
But market dynamics will also help, he said. Sure, the S&P 500 isn't fast-tracking the stock, but the Nasdaq and Russell indexes buying it up should more than make up for it. IPO orders are already oversubscribed, meaning strong demand, he said, and he theorized that last Friday's poor stock market performance may have something to do with investors gearing up to buy next week.
"I wouldn't be surprised if some fund managers today are freeing up cash to buy SpaceX next week," he said.
Brian Mulberry, Chief Market Strategist at Zacks Investment Management
Michael Yanow/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Mulberry said that good-old-fashioned fundamentals will stop him from buying SpaceX on day one. SpaceX, like many tech IPOs, is "pre-profit" and Mulberry said his firm usually "looks for a strong road to profitability before we take positions."
"We will take a little time to see where actual revenues are coming in and then make a decision based on that," Mulberry said.
Jeff Judge, Managing Partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Would you buy: No
In addition to SpaceX's valuation, Judge noted that 30% of the IPO shares will be allocated to retail investors.
"I think it is either a money grab to get as many inflows in or there isn't as much appetite for it at the institutional level as they had expected," Judge said. "Neither is a strong buy signal."
Commentators have expressed hesitation around the retail component recently, noting that bigger participation from the day-trader crowd could increase volatility.
On Thursday, Fidelity announced that it would lower the account minimum for users on its platform to buy the stock at the IPO price.
Keith Fitz-Gerald, founder of Fitz-Gerald Must Have Portfolio ETF
A SpaceX rocket launchNurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Fitz-Gerald said that retail traders will "almost certainly rue the day" they bought into big IPOs like SpaceX.
Retail investors are "not prepared for the possibility of a highly quantitative, institutionally-driven sharkfest," he said. They may not have the stomach for a 20-40% drop in the short-term, even if there's long-term wealth to be made.
"A widely anticipated stock like SpaceX is going to be like throwing chum in the water for high-speed traders and quantitatively driven shops who will use every trick in the book — derivatives, overlays, technical trading, and so on to gain an edge over the average retail investor," he said. "Time frames will compress and volatility — which is their lifeblood — will increase."
Mike Serio, CIO of Trilogy Financial
EvgeniyQ/Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Serio turned to previous mega-IPOs to explain why he wouldn't buy the stock, explaining that Meta didn't start outperforming the S&P 500 until more than 10 years after IPO.
Top tech IPOs have been "liquidity events which free up capital for private shareholders" instead of "once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunities," Serio said. Meta IPO purchases likely "paid for a good deal of tuition and retirement expenses," he said, but it didn't happen overnight.
"In my humble opinion, if one is interested in these IPOs, they eventually will get a second and third bite of the apple," Serio said.
David Wagner, Head of Equities and Portfolio Manager at Aptus Capital Advisors
Between pictures of rockets, planets, and satellites, SpaceX's recently dropped S-1 includes a bevy of nerdy language.Manuel Mazzanti/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Would you buy: No
Wagner said his firm was surprised to hear that the S&P 500 wasn't fast-tracking the stock for the index. The resulting lack of passive index money could make many decide to wait before investing, he said.
"This may cause some managers to pause their IPO purchases to let the dust settle now that they have some time to watch the overall volatility of the security," Wagner said.
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Source: “AOL Money”
