Gulf likely to be all in on SpaceX IPO

The Gulf is poised to back Elon Musk’s planned SpaceX initial public offering on a large scale, drawn by the company’s combination of launch, satellite and artificial intelligence assets and an IPO that is targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation, industry sources and analysts told AGBI. SpaceX filed for a US listing earlier this month, is planning a June roadshow and aims to raise about $75 billion, Reuters reported — a float that Gulf sovereign wealth funds and regional investors are already lining up to join.

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“I think everyone is going to want to get in on this,” said Natasha Ahmed, a Washington-based managing director of investment network Cosmic Funds and senior adviser at Trends, a risk consultancy focused on US-Middle East relationships. Ahmed added: “Saudi Arabia wants to double down on the work it is doing with xAI… and will really consider being an anchor investor because it already holds so many shares and it’s going to get in at the pre-IPO price. If the valuation drives up, it’s a smart financial decision.”

Context and details

Gulf stakeholders are already woven into Musk’s broader technology empire. SpaceX merged with xAI in early February, bringing together rocket and satellite programmes with AI work that had attracted Gulf capital. Humain, the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) artificial intelligence company, invested $3 billion in xAI during a January Series E round; Humain described the deal as making it a “significant” minority shareholder in xAI and said its holdings converted into SpaceX shares after the merger.

Sources told Reuters and AGBI that PIF is in talks to make an additional $5 billion “anchor” investment in the SpaceX IPO. Anchor investments by major institutional players are commonly used to instil confidence in large new listings.

• Other Gulf investors in xAI and SpaceX include Kingdom Holding, the Qatar Investment Authority and the Oman Investment Authority, which participated in an xAI Series C round in December 2024.
• Abu Dhabi-listed International Holding Company and Alpha Dhabi Holding each invested $25 million into SpaceX in June 2022.
• UAE advanced technology investor MGX also took part in xAI’s latest funding round in January.

Analysts and regional advisers point to strategic as well as financial motives. Anna Hazlett, founder and CEO of UAE investment and advisory company AzurX, said there is “significant alignment between SpaceX’s capabilities and what the Gulf is trying to achieve.” She added: “The rollout of Starlink, for example, is particularly relevant – connectivity, resilience and digital infrastructure are all key themes across the Gulf, and low Earth orbit constellations are increasingly seen as foundational to that.”

Outlook

Analysts caution that geopolitical tensions, notably the Iran conflict, will sharpen Gulf interest in space for dual-use and defence applications even as the region balances risk and returns. Ahmed warned it is “a balancing act,” suggesting Gulf sovereigns may favour established, strategic assets over earlier-stage plays for now. At the same time, the scale of the proposed SpaceX float — and its plan to use proceeds to deploy “upwards of 1 million data centres bearing satellites” to increase off‑earth compute capacity, according to SpaceX’s IPO filing — could absorb substantial regional capital, reshaping how Gulf investors allocate across domestic and international tech opportunities.