It’s attainable to get in on SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) before its preliminary public providing (IPO), however there are dangers, trade-offs, and heavy charges.
The upcoming SpaceX IPO may occur as early as this June, with a potentially massive 30% retail allocation, with underwriters of main buying and selling platforms offering retail traders with allocations post-IPO.
But for many who need in somewhat sooner, it is somewhat difficult.
The most direct route to SpaceX inventory before an IPO is thru a personal secondary market. These are transactions wherein current shareholders — staff, early traders, or former contractors — promote their vested inventory to new patrons. SpaceX doesn’t subject new shares in these offers; traders buy from current shareholders.
It’s been fairly a well-liked choice in current months.
“SpaceX is consistently one of the most actively traded names on our platform because there’s nothing else like it in the private markets today,” Greg Martin of Rainmaker Securities, which makes a speciality of the secondary markets, advised Yahoo Finance. “You’ve got a highly defensible, massive operating scale business, a multitude of major TAM [total addressable market] expansion opportunities, with a continuously evolving story.”
Added Martin, “Demand has also almost always outpaced supply, and that’s been true even during periods where broader secondary market activity has been more muted.”
Shares purchased on secondary markets are typically subject to a lockup period after an IPO — usually 90 to 180 days — during which you cannot sell. This is a standard limitation designed to prevent a flood of supply hitting the market immediately after listing.
Once the lockup expires, shares convert to tradable stock, and owners can sell, hold, or transfer them like any other public company share.
In this image from video provided by NASA, a SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev, approaches the International Space Station for docking on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
To participate in private markets, individuals must qualify as accredited investors — meaning they must have income above $200,000 per year (or $300,000 combined with a spouse) for at least two consecutive years or a net worth exceeding $1 million, excluding a primary residence. Investment minimums are steep: Most platforms require at least $50,000 to $100,000 per transaction.
Aside from Rainmaker, other secondary platforms of note include EquityZen, Forge Global, and Hiive. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance’s Private Market Hub has a partnership with Forge Global and EquityZen.)
Hiive is a newer entrant with real-time pricing data. As of April 2026, Hiive lists SpaceX shares at around $832 per share.
Even Nasdaq, which will most likely list SpaceX stock once it goes public, has its Private Market offering. Nasdaq says it primarily serves institutional and high-net-worth investors, and it tends to facilitate larger block transactions directly from insiders and funds.
Other ways to “buy” SpaceX forward of the IPO are structured by way of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) or funds, reasonably than as direct share possession.
Elon Musk attends the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
In these cases, you hold an interest in a fund that owns the shares — not the shares themselves. Post-IPO mechanics can differ slightly, as some will give stock to their investors, while others will likely offer a cash payout.
One investor told Yahoo Finance that he invested in an SPV that provides exposure to a mix of both SpaceX common and preferred stock through a venture capital fund for accredited investors. While he was able to invest early on SpaceX shares, he noted that “fees are heavy.”
“An investor must be careful to avoid a situation where the combination of fees and a small percentage holding makes the investment unattractive,” Jay Ritter, University of Florida professor and director of the IPO Initiative, said to Yahoo Finance.
A less complicated methodology to get publicity to SpaceX (and one that gives extra liquidity) is a number of publicly accessible ETFs and mutual funds. The Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) is one in all the granddaddies of development investing, managed by William Danoff since 1990 and having big hits with investments in Meta (META), Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT), amongst different large-cap development firms.
A Starlink satellite broadband antenna from SpaceX is on sale in the computer department of a Fnac store in the Victor Hugo shopping center in Valence, France, on March 8, 2025. (NICOLAS GUYONNET/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images) ·NICOLAS GUYONNET via Getty Images
“We like SpaceX, in part, for its Starlink business focusing on low-earth-orbit satellites, which has created a web of broadband internet access to previously underserved communities in rural and remote areas,” the fund wrote in its 2025 end-of-year review.
Contrafund’s position in SpaceX is valued at round $3.5 billion, or simply over 2% of the fund’s $170 billion in belongings.
ERShares Entrepreneur 30 ETF (XOVR) holds roughly $205 million in SpaceX publicity by way of a special-purpose car, making it an ETF with a stake in the firm, although the ETF doesn’t present direct possession of SpaceX inventory.
Baron Partners Fund (BPTRX): A mutual fund with roughly 33% of its portfolio in SpaceX (it’s largest place), one in all the heaviest weightings of any publicly accessible fund. Founder Ron Baron is a famous fan of Elon Musk and an early backer, so the fund’s excessive possession of SpaceX isn’t a shock, and it’s forward of Tesla at 20.4%.
ARK Venture Fund is managed by famous tech investor Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, with the fund focusing on non-public market disruptors. SpaceX is its largest holding at around 17% weighting. Note the ARK Venture fund is a closed-end mutual fund, and completely separate from the ARK Innovation ETF that boomed throughout Tesla’s huge run, however cooled off not too long ago.
For broader house sector publicity with out direct SpaceX stakes, funds like the ARK Space Exploration ETF (ARKX) and the Procure Space ETF (UFO) monitor firms throughout launch, satellite tv for pc, and protection — sectors that stand to profit if SpaceX’s development continues, and rerate the entire sector.
With SpaceX reportedly filing for an IPO targeting a $1.5 trillion to eye-popping $2 trillion valuation, the window for pre-public entry is narrowing.
Another option to keep in mind is timing — and whether it even makes sense to invest in SpaceX now.
“Investors make money by buying low and selling high. The price today is no longer low,” Ritter said.
“SpaceX might be a great company, but a great company is not the same thing as a great stock.”
Pras Subramanian is the Lead Transportation Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can comply with him on X and on Instagram.
