You don’t have to wait until SpaceX goes public to own a piece of Elon Musk’s rocket maker. But investors considering investing in one of the funds with current exposure to the roughly $1.25 trillion company should be mindful of the risks.

Chief among them is that it can be difficult to get an understanding of SpaceX’s finances. That was the case even before SpaceX acquired xAI — Musk’s cash-burning artificial-intelligence startup — in a transaction that has only further muddied the company’s financial picture. Musk’s bankers are reportedly working on a financing plan that could trim some of the nearly $18 billion in debt from his acquisition of Twitter and launch of xAI, according to Bloomberg News.

SpaceX reportedly generated about $8 billion in profit against revenue of between $15 billion and $16 billion in 2025, while xAI burned almost $8 billion in cash across the first nine months of 2025.

The newly combined company is seeking to raise as much as $50 billion at a $1.5 trillion valuation, which would make SpaceX about as valuable as Broadcom or Tesla. But Broadcom generated $33.7 billion in net income on revenue of $63.9 billion in its latest fiscal year, while Tesla booked a $5.9 billion profit on revenue of $94.8 billion.

Kaush Amin, managing director of private-market investing at U.S. Bank, told MarketWatch that investors are “chasing shiny objects” and suffering from the fear of missing out, which is driving interest in SpaceX and other highflying companies eyeing IPOs. Musk has major aspirations for SpaceX, from developing a 1 million-satellite constellation around the Earth to colonizing the moon and Mars.

But “the fundamentals are still really not there,” Amin said.

Getting in on the private-market action

For many investors, it can be difficult to get direct exposure to SpaceX and other large private companies, partially because regulations encourage them to keep their on-record shareholder counts low. That’s where secondary markets come in.

“People are looking for growth, and growth is happening in these private companies,” said Greg Martin, the managing director overseeing private markets for Rainmaker Securities, which helps facilitate private stock transactions.

Rainmaker and competing platforms, such as Forge Global and Hiive, say that they’re helping “democratize” access to large private firms, which can be inaccessible to the average investor. Such platforms help connect investors interested in buying private stock from current owners looking to sell, although the exact process can vary — as can the fees they charge.

For example, Forge runs what it calls an active market, where live bids and asks for shares are visible, including both direct trades and trades that occur through an intermediary vehicle.

Meanwhile, Rainmaker operates what Martin likened to a “matchmaking” service. It employs a team of more than 80 brokers, or “rainmakers,” who connect potential buyers and sellers.

But not everyone can participate.

Many of these private marketplaces allow only accredited investors to buy and trade shares. That narrows participants to people with at least $1 million in assets, as well as an individual annual income of more than $200,000 or a joint income of $300,000. Just 12.6% of the U.S. population would qualify as accredited investors, according to a June 2025 report from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Even investors capable of buying shares aren’t always able to. SpaceX, like many other private firms, typically holds the right of first refusal. That allows it to match any offer for its stock and buy it back, which helps limit the number of shareholders. Forge noted that the right of first refusal process must be completed before trades on its platform are completed.

Finding a fund

A more accessible option is investing with groups that own shares in Musk’s companies, which can have a smaller barrier to entry, such as the Private Shares Fund, which says SpaceX and xAI account for more than 16% of its portfolio.

Managing Director Kevin Moss told MarketWatch that the Private Shares Fund helps broaden access to a slew of private companies. It costs a minimum of $2,500 to invest.

Moss’s firm operates one of several interval funds that have positions in Musk’s private companies. Another is Cathie Wood’s ARK Venture Fund, which requires a $500 investment. That fund has a stake of greater than 17% in the combination of SpaceX and xAI. Its portfolio includes OpenAI and other private firms.

The Private Shares Fund grew 12% in 2025, underperforming the Russell 2000. The ARK Venture Fund’s net asset value, or the difference between its assets and liabilities divided by shares outstanding, grew 55% last year.

There are some downsides to this approach. Jake Falcon, CEO at the Kansas-based Falcon Wealth Advisors, cautioned that while some funds may use a big name as an advertising tool, their actual positions may be too small to meaningfully benefit. Some also mislead investors about their exposure, as one firm allegedly did by telling clients it falsely had access to Anduril, a private military-tech company.

William Reid Culp III, the founder of North Carolina-based investment firm TAGStone Capital, said that’s not always the case. He pointed to Baron Capital, the asset-management firm run by Ron Baron, which began buying Tesla shares in 2014 and SpaceX’s stock in 2017, and created a pair of funds dedicated to xAI in 2024.

“For long-term Baron fund investors, that early private exposure has added substantial value,” Culp told MarketWatch in emailed comments. “But that success is highly path-dependent and not easily replicated by funds buying in later.”

The $9.7 billion Baron Partners Fund has allocated more than 28% of its portfolio to SpaceX and almost 27% to Tesla. The $1.8 billion Baron Opportunity Fund also counted SpaceX, Tesla and xAI as some of its top holdings as of December.

Baron launched an exchange-traded fund last December, the Baron First Principles ETF, with $30 million worth of SpaceX shares. Several other ETFs with exposure to SpaceX are also available, although not all have a direct stake in the company.

For example, the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF offers exposure to SpaceX through a special purpose vehicle. ERShares on Feb. 10 announced that itsexposureto SpaceX has surpassed $200 million. That ETF is down by more than 9% over the last 12 months.

Special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, are shell companies that allow investors to pool their assets together to get a slice of private companies. Generally, they carry expensive fees, including 10% or more upfront management fees and 20% carried interest on any gains, according to Nasdaq Private Markets.

Going the public route

If investors want to invest in SpaceX but don’t have the ability or interest in funds or the private market, there is another way to bet on Musk’s vision of the future. Just invest in Tesla, the only publicly traded company in Musk’s portfolio.

For one, Tesla is a candidate to merge with SpaceX. It’s also expected to become a shareholder of the combined entity through a planned $2 billion purchase of xAI stock announced in late January and set to close in the current quarter. 

Wedbush analyst and Tesla bull Daniel Ives has said that a Tesla and SpaceX tie-up could occur within the next 18 months. “We expect more cross-pollination between Tesla and SpaceX over the coming year, which is bullish for the Tesla story,” he said in a recent note to investors.

Another option for retail investors is investing in firms that work with SpaceX and can benefit by proxy from its success. That includes firms like Hunting and STMicroelectronics, which, respectively, provide rocket landing legpartsand chips for Starlink.

EchoStar also has astakein SpaceX through itssaleof wireless spectrum to the company, although the merger with xAI creates a “higher degree of risk” for investors, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a Jan. 29 note.

Bank of America and Google-parent Alphabet have alsoinvestedin SpaceX, though their holdings account for a relatively small portion of their portfolios.