First and foremost, the underlying satellite internet constellation business is incredibly relevant to our digitalized economy. Second, the space economy is already a multibillion-dollar monster of an industry and will likely only get bigger. Unfortunately, a satcom business is expensive to manage, and there is a real risk of the business running out of cash soon after it offers a wide-sweeping service. This lack of cash flow predictability — as mentioned above — can delay public trading on Starlink stock for some time. Again, you can’t just purchase shares of Starlink through your brokerage account. But these are some of the main pros and cons of investing in Starlink.
SpaceX Starlink Unveils Massive Growth. Is an IPO Imminent?
The anticipation for a Starlink IPO is palpable among investors who see the potential for big returns. But it’s important to remember that investing in Starlink means investing in SpaceX, a privately-owned company. If and when Starlink goes public, investors will need to buy shares of SpaceX, currently valued at around a whopping $137 billion. Some public companies, like Alphabet (Google’s parent company), have invested in SpaceX. Buying their shares gives you a slice of the SpaceX pie, albeit a tiny one. The pro here is that you can trade these shares freely on the stock market.
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But remember, your investment is largely tied to the primary business of those companies, not just their stake in SpaceX. Also, unless you’re a well-heeled and well-connected investor, chances are you won’t have access to how to use the rest api with curl an IPO at the initial offering price. Usually, IPO underwriters price down their shares relative to what they believe the market will bear. This discount rewards institutional buyers at the expense of retail investors, who pay the market price which often ends up higher than the initial offering.
- If that were still the case, Starlink would be worth at least $100 billion as a standalone company.
- Melissa Pistilli has been reporting on the markets and educating investors since 2006.
- In a series of tweets, Elon Musk repeatedly expressed his interest in spinning off his SpaceX subsidiary as a publicly-traded entity.
- High net worth is one of the criteria for becoming an accredited investor.
Outside of market hours orders are received on a not held basis and will be aggregated for each security then executed in the morning trade window of the next business day at market open. Share will be delivered at an average price received for executing the securities through a single batched order. Fractional shares will be sold when a transfer or closure request is initiated. That’s part of the reason why unless you’re an accredited investor, you won’t qualify to purchase pre-IPO shares of any company. High net worth is one of the criteria for becoming an accredited investor.
Iridium Communications
Elon Musk’s main criterion is for initial public offering of Starlink to be profitable with a predictable cash flow. The valuation of Starlink is closely tied to SpaceX, as Starlink is currently a subsidiary. SpaceX’s latest valuation in December 2023 reached $180 billion following a secondary share sale by existing investors. This places SpaceX’s valuation at approximately 17x exchange rate us dollar to danish krone its 2023 revenue of $8.7 billion.
Big names like Andreesen Horowitz, Sequoia, Founders Fund, Gigafund, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to name a few. Melissa Pistilli has been reporting on the markets and educating investors since 2006. She has covered a wide variety of industries in the investment space including mining, cannabis, tech and pharmaceuticals.
That includes the Crew-3 Mission launch from the Kennedy Space Center in November 2021. There are many reasons people may want to invest in Starlink, but it being one of CEO Elon Musk’s numerous companies is a likely factor. Although Musk can be a polarizing figure, he inevitably draws a lot of attention with any of his business endeavors. We receive compensation from the products and services mentioned in this story, but the opinions are the author’s own. Learn more about how we make money and our editorial policies. In June 2024, SpaceX planned a secondary market transaction – giving insiders a chance to sell some or all of their shares – which valued the company at $210 billion.
Right now, Musk has the golden touch and only the bravest will bet against him. While risks abound, a compelling debut like a Starlink IPO could command a hefty multiple relative to the launch day’s valuation. Therefore, risk-tolerant investors will want to pay attention. Starlink is not yet publicly traded, so it doesn’t have a stock symbol as of October 2024. There are also concerns about light what does a devops engineer do pollution and even Starlink’s satellites potentially interfering with the work of astronomers.
In June 2023, Musk commented that Starlink’s valuation “will be at least half of SpaceX’s private net worth.” SpaceX’s current valuation on the secondary market is $210 billion. If Starlink is still worth half of SpaceX’s value, that would mean so Starlink is worth around $105 billion on its own. If we assume the average customer pays Starlink $100 per month, its 3 million customers are currently generating $300 million per month in revenue, or $3.6 billion per year.
Plus you’re not the only investor who wants a piece of Starlink so finding shares in the company won’t be easy. On top of that, shares in a private company can be illiquid, meaning you can’t sell them as easily as public stock. Historically, speed and capacity represent the two most significant drawbacks to satellite internet. Most satellite internet service providers only support speeds between 25 and 300 megabits per second (mbps).