Almost one in three British investors is planning to buy SpaceX shares when Elon Musk’s rocket company lists on the New York stock market, according to new research — with younger investors particularly eager to get in on what could become the largest public float in history.
A survey of UK investors by research house Norstat found that 30 per cent intend to purchase SpaceX shares following its initial public offering, which SpaceX outlined plans for last week. The listing could value the company at £1.3 trillion — a figure that would dwarf any previous IPO and cement SpaceX as one of the most valuable companies on the planet.
Appetite among younger investors is striking. Around 72 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 said they would buy in, compared with just 8 per cent of over-55s. One in five UK investors said they would allocate more than 10 per cent of their portfolio to SpaceX — a significant concentration bet for a company that has yet to trade publicly. The experience of owning Tesla shares also appears to be a meaningful driver, with 71 per cent of Tesla investors saying it made them more likely to back Musk’s rocket firm.
Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, said interest in SpaceX was already dominating conversations across the equity trading community. “Its opening day may not be far off, but given the dynamics in play, the first few days of listing could be truly explosive,” he said. “What the SpaceX listing is already doing, and will likely only accelerate further, is building interest in what should become one of the defining mega-themes shaping markets into late 2026 and certainly 2027 — namely the space economy.”
Weston cautioned that SpaceX’s valuation was driven more by vision than traditional financial metrics, which might not suit all institutional funds, but suggested it could become a highly sought-after stock for active traders given the relatively limited number of shares expected to be in circulation and the likelihood of significant price volatility in its early days of trading.
