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'In Musk we trust': Korean investors bet big on SpaceX IPO

Published: 07 Apr. 2026, 05:00

JIN MIN-JI
[email protected]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is displayed outside a SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California on March 26. SpaceX, the company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, will soon file for an initial public share offering in June that could raise a whopping $75 billion for his extraterrestrial ambitions, a report said on March 24. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korean investors’ love for Tesla is no secret. Since late 2020, the electric carmaker has remained their top overseas pick in terms of custody amount, even beating Nvidia despite the mega chip boom. Now, with Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX slated for a public listing in June, they are showing renewed interest in the previously underrepresented aerospace sector.

SpaceX — the world’s most prolific rocket launcher designed to send people to Mars and beyond — has filed for an initial public offering (IPO), according to Bloomberg. The company is reportedly targeting a valuation of around $1.75 trillion, positioning it among the top six most valuable U.S. public companies alongside Apple and Nvidia. It could raise as much as $75 billion through the IPO.

Ahead of the highly anticipated mega listing, retail investors are moving early, pouring more than 90 billion won ($60 million) in a single week into the only three exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the U.S. aerospace sector — one managed by Samsung Asset Management and the others by Hana Asset Management and Woori Asset Management — on expectations that SpaceX will be included once it goes public. They net purchased 58.9 million won in Samsung’s KODEX US Aerospace over the past week, nearly 30 percent of the company’s ETF product tracking the Nasdaq 100, according to data provider ETF Check.

“Ten years ago, investing in Tesla gave me the freedom to afford a car and a home,” wrote an investor on Threads last week, sharing an account verified to have gained nearly 700 percent. “This time, no matter what, I won’t miss out on SpaceX.”

Elon Musk attends the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. [AP/YONHAP]

Investors appear unfazed despite the space industry’s structural risks, including financing challenges stemming from its capital-intensive nature — risks made especially acute by inflationary pressures from the energy crisis, which could push interest rates higher and hurt the growth stocks.

“With SpaceX going public in 2026 and various space projects by NASA and the U.S. government scheduled to take place, key U.S. space industry companies are expected to emerge prominently as global investment opportunities,” said Kim Jae-im, an analyst at Hana Securities. NASA, for instance, successfully launched Artemis II on Wednesday — its first astronaut mission to the vicinity of the moon since 1972.

“While macro issues such as the conflict in Iran could increase volatility, the space industry is likely to remain a powerful investment theme over the coming years, offering ample opportunities for investors,” Kim added.

Reflecting an expected surge in demand, brokerages are racing to launch ETFs tracking aerospace companies, with plans to include SpaceX following its market debut.

“SpaceX inclusion was built into the design when launching KODEX US Aerospace,” said Choi Jong-su, a representative at Samsung Asset Management, about the U.S. aerospace ETF, which was launched last month. “We’ve structured the rules to allow SpaceX to be added to the index immediately once it goes public,” Choi added, referring to the ETF’s methodology, which states that the asset management company can review the inclusion of a newly listed company within the sector. In the third week since the launch, its asset under management sits at 251.5 billion won.

Hana Asset Management similarly launched an ETF tracking U.S. aerospace companies in November of last year. Its assets under management have surpassed 580 billion won since the debut. Other asset management firms, including Mirae Asset Global Investments and KB Asset Management, said they are reviewing plans to launch U.S. aerospace-themed ETFs in the coming months.

The renewed interest is expected to substantially expand the current lineup of just seven aerospace-themed ETFs — still far fewer than the more than 60 chip-related ETFs currently available.

“The listing of SpaceX, which would almost certainly rank among the top 10 U.S. companies by market capitalization, could create opportunities for many private aerospace firms — both in the United States and abroad — to secure higher valuations based on SpaceX as a peer benchmark, while also supporting their pursuit of an IPO,” said Park Seung-jin, an analyst at Hana Securities, potentially broadening investment options for investors.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the Earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, on Jan. 15. [AP/YONHAP]

Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, investors are also turning their attention to companies that have invested in the space firm, with analysts raising their target prices.

Mirae Asset Securities, which invested roughly $278 million in SpaceX from 2022 through 2023 with Mirae Asset Capital in forms including funds, saw its share price jump 580 percent on year.

With investor attention on SpaceX heating up, Yuanta Securities on Monday raised Mirae Asset Securities' target price by 12.9 percent to 83,000 won, saying there were “no concerns ahead of a SpaceX IPO." NH Investment & Securities also lifted its target price by 57 percent to 110,000 won in late March, citing strong expectations for returns from its SpaceX investment as a key driver.

Korea Investment Partners, a local venture capital, has also invested $10 million in SpaceX shares from employees in a secondary market transaction, according to reports last year.

“Many of Elon Musk’s ideas were initially mocked — such as Starlink, SpaceX and Neuralink — but as each gradually becomes a reality, trust has been built,” Park added, explaining the reason behind many Koreans’ confidence in Musk’s ventures. But that confidence isn’t solely due to Musk’s vision, but partly “reinforced by the learning effect from Tesla’s success.”

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]