As Elon Musk readies SpaceX for a highly anticipated initial public offering, Wall Street is racing to find the next big winner in space exploration.
Space has evolved from a niche corner of the stock market into an area that offers the potential for diversity and growth. The euphoria around SpaceX’s market entry is driving fresh investor flows into the sector. Since the news of the offering first became public in early December, smaller space and related stocks have soared.
The SpaceX IPO “helps validate space as a scalable, institutional-grade growth industry,” said Greg Pendy, an analyst at Clear Street. “More importantly, it establishes a valuation benchmark that investors can use to value other public space companies.”
Bank of America Corp.’s basket of US stocks that are key players and potential beneficiaries of the space race has surged 40% this year, outpacing gains in the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq 100 Index. Of the 35 companies that make up the basket, Satellogic Inc. — with a market capitalization of around $1.4 billion — has rocketed up 419% in 2026. Meanwhile, Iridium Communications Inc., which is worth about $4.6 billion in market value, has soared 151% over the same period.
Here are the stocks and funds that investors should watch ahead of SpaceX’s market entry.
Space Stocks
Space offers a lot of diversity within single stocks, which range from rocket manufacturers and satellite designers, to suborbital tourism and space sensors.
Planet Labs PBC, which has advanced 108% so far this year, is an Earth imaging company, providing daily satellite data helping businesses, governments and more. At the other end of the universe, Firefly Aerospace Inc. enables government and commercial customers to launch, land and operate in space. The stock has gained 92% this year.
The sector has already seen its fair share of IPOs. Recent space-focused listings — including York Space Systems Inc., which listed in January, as well as earlier entries such as Intuitive Machines Inc. and AST SpaceMobile Inc. — have helped broaden investor access to the commercial space economy ahead of SpaceX’s listing. Applied Aerospace & Defense Inc. is the latest firm filing for a US IPO, joining the recent rush of space names entering the market.
“I think investor interest in commercial space should increase generally as space is viewed as becoming more ‘investable,’” said Austin Moeller, an aerospace and defense technology analyst at Canaccord Genuity.
Since SpaceX was reported to have confidentially filed for an IPO, a flock of investors have continued to pour into the sector. Space transportation company Rocket Lab Corp. has seen gains of about 94%, while Globalstar Inc.’s shares have jumped 19%. Shares of satellite broadband communications company EchoStar Corp., which owns SpaceX stock through a spectrum license deal, have climbed about 13%.
The influence of SpaceX on the sector could be seen on Monday. Musk telling a summit that he was in Texas, working on place for the IPO, sent names like Firefly Aerospace and Voyager Technologies Inc. higher.
“There are two sides to the recent rally in these stocks,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, noting that a successful SpaceX IPO would have “a halo effect” on the valuation of the other companies in the sector. On the flipside, “a better capitalized SpaceX would be a more formidable competitor” for these stocks, which already had a substantial bump, he said.
The space craze has spread to Europe too. Among companies, thinly traded German satellite maker OHB SE has jumped 719% and UK SpaceX supplier Filtronic Plc is up over 268% since a year ago. French Starlink rival Eutelsat Communications SA is up 75% in 2026, making up for last year’s declines.
A hiccup in a multi-year defense stock rally has, for now, overshadowed further enthusiasm for the likes of Airbus SE, Safran SA, Thales SA, BAE Systems Plc, Leonardo SpA and Avio SpA, which all have space businesses.
“The good thing is these European companies, they have lower valuation multiples. So if they were to expand into the space more, then it’s a good buying opportunity,” said Lale Akoner, global market analyst at eToro Group Ltd.
Space Funds
Single stocks are not the only way to gain exposure to the nascent space sector. Exchange-traded funds for the space race have become more popular in recent times.
The Procure Space ETF (ticker: UFO), which holds the significance of being the first space-focused fund, has jumped 48% this year. Not everyone was on board, however. UFO was dubbed one of the worst new exchange-traded products when it launched in 2019. But last month, the fund pulled in a record $323 million in flows, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“We identified space as being an opportunity that we thought many people might be interested in getting exposure to,” said Andrew Chanin, co-founder and chief executive officer of ProcureAM.
Chanin notes that the SpaceX IPO has drawn interest, and people are now searching for proxies or exposures to space. SpaceX going public is changing perceptions about space, going from a “more far out there, whimsical science fiction industry” to a sector where firms are “doing some pretty incredible things right now.”
UFO is no longer the only space-focused ETF. In the US, it has been joined by Tema Space Innovators ETF and the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF. In Europe, the VanEck Space Innovators UCITS ETF is up over 190% in a year and London-based Seraphim Space Investment Trust, which counts Finnish satellite startup Iceye as its top holding, has surged over 290%.
“There are already several innovative companies being built across the space ecosystem, but the SpaceX IPO will bring more attention, capital, and credibility to the category as a whole,” said Yuri Khodjamirian, chief investment officer at Tema ETFs. “Index inclusion alone means active managers can no longer ignore space—that rising tide can benefit smaller companies as investors start looking beyond just the headline name.”
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