CoinDesk
Cathie Wood's ARK Invest built a stake of nearly 3.3 million SpaceX shares — worth more than $500 million at the $135 IPO price — on the day Elon Musk's company went public in the largest IPO in history on Friday. The shares closed at $160.95, up roughly 19.2% on day one, and the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) ended the session with SpaceX at 3.28% of its portfolio.
The buy was funded by selling. ARK liquidated almost $280 million of stock across multiple holdings in the week before the listing, then sold another roughly 948,000 shares across 13 companies worth at least $48 million on IPO day itself, including Advanced Micro Devices, Roku and Baidu, according to daily statements over the period. Total rotation out of existing positions: north of $325 million.
Why it matters
ARK is one of the loudest institutional bitcoin bulls in the market — the firm runs a spot bitcoin ETF and Wood has publicly carried seven-figure long-term price targets. So when ARK rotates fresh risk capital into a high-growth IPO rather than adding to crypto, the signal is sharp: institutions are paying up for AI and space listings while digital assets sit on the back burner. A first-day pop of almost 20% on the largest IPO ever confirms that the hottest trade in the market is a wave of AI and space listings, with OpenAI and Anthropic also filing to go public.
Market impact
There is a finite pool of risk capital. When a known crypto bull reallocates hundreds of millions into SpaceX instead of $BTC, the read for crypto is unambiguously bearish near-term — funds are getting pulled out of the asset class to chase the new high-beta story. ARK's internal model prices SpaceX at a $2.5 trillion enterprise value by 2030 in its base case, with a bull case near $3.1 trillion, anchored off the company's $350 billion private valuation in 2024. That kind of forward target is the kind of asymmetric upside thesis ARK used to apply to bitcoin — and the rotation suggests that capital, and that narrative energy, is moving with it.
Frequently asked questions
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How much did ARK Invest put into SpaceX on IPO day?
ARK Invest built a stake of nearly 3.3 million SpaceX shares worth more than $500 million at the $135 IPO price on Friday, with ARKK ending the day with SpaceX at 3.28% of its portfolio.
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How did ARK fund the SpaceX purchase?
ARK liquidated almost $280 million of stock across multiple holdings in the week before the listing, then sold another ~948,000 shares across 13 companies worth at least $48 million on IPO day itself, including AMD, Roku and Baidu. Total rotation out of existing positions exceeded $325 million.
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Why is an ARK SpaceX buy bearish for crypto?
ARK runs a spot bitcoin ETF and Cathie Wood is one of the most vocal institutional $BTC bulls. When a known crypto bull deploys fresh risk capital into a high-growth IPO instead of into digital assets, it signals that institutional money is rotating toward AI and space listings and away from crypto near-term.
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How did SpaceX shares perform on day one?
SpaceX priced at $135 for the IPO and closed at $160.95, up roughly 19.2% on day one — the largest IPO in history, with OpenAI and Anthropic also filing to go public.
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What is ARK's long-term SpaceX valuation target?
ARK's internal model targets a $2.5 trillion enterprise value for SpaceX by 2030 in its base case, with a bull case near $3.1 trillion, anchored off the company's $350 billion private valuation in 2024.
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