The Public Investment Fund discloses ownership of 154.1 million SpaceX shares, valued at $26.3 billion at the end of June, placing it among the company’s largest disclosed institutional investors

Riyadh | BETH

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has disclosed that it owns approximately 154.1 million Class A shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with a market value of about $26.3 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2026.

The stake appeared in the fund’s latest quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 13F, which reports the holdings of large investment managers in publicly traded U.S. securities.

The size of the position places the Public Investment Fund among SpaceX’s largest disclosed institutional investors, with 154.1 million shares, compared with approximately 551.2 million held by Alphabet, 302.6 million by Fidelity and 171.8 million by Gigafund.

The disclosure followed SpaceX’s U.S. market debut on June 12 at $135 per share. The company sold 638.9 million shares in its initial public offering, generating net proceeds of approximately $85.7 billion.

The share price rose to $170.86 by the end of June, the price used to calculate the disclosed value of the fund’s stake.

Not a Single Transaction

SpaceX’s first appearance in the fund’s Form 13F filing does not mean that the Public Investment Fund purchased all 154.1 million shares during the second quarter or paid $26.3 billion for them.

That figure represents the market value of the stake on June 30, not its acquisition cost.

Before the offering, the fund already owned a stake of slightly less than 1% in SpaceX. It had also held discussions over a potential additional investment of approximately $5 billion as an anchor investor in the public offering.

The disclosed position is therefore likely to combine shares owned before the listing with shares added or reclassified around the time of the offering.

Form 13F, however, does not reveal the average purchase price, the timing of each transaction or the precise number of shares added during the quarter.

What Is the Fund Buying?

Investing in SpaceX is not limited to acquiring a stake in a rocket-launch company.

SpaceX brings together several sectors expected to form an important part of the future economy, including:

• Satellite launches and spaceflight.
• Starlink satellite communications and internet services.
• Sovereign and military communications services.
• Computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
• The potential development of space-linked data centers.
• Transportation and communications technologies serving governments, companies and global markets.

From this perspective, the investment places the fund inside a technological ecosystem extending from Earth to orbit, with potential returns that do not depend on a single business activity.

Connected to Saudi Transformation

The investment aligns with Saudi Arabia’s effort to build an economy increasingly driven by advanced technology, artificial intelligence, communications and digital infrastructure.

It also complements other Saudi investments linked to Elon Musk’s network of companies, including cooperation between HUMAIN and xAI to develop data-center and artificial intelligence capacity in the Kingdom.

The strategic value may therefore extend beyond potential financial returns. The investment relationship could create opportunities for cooperation in satellite communications, data transmission, computing, skills development and the attraction of space-related businesses and technologies to the Saudi market.

Owning shares alone, however, does not guarantee technology transfer or the localization of operations.

Achieving that wider impact will depend on converting the financial relationship into operational and investment agreements inside the Kingdom.

A Large and Moving Stake

The SpaceX holding is substantial even when compared with the fund’s most prominent investments in U.S. equities, but its value will move directly with the company’s share price.

If the number of shares remained unchanged, the decline in the share price from $170.86 at the end of June to $141.29 on August 13 would reduce the theoretical market value of the stake from approximately $26.3 billion to about $21.8 billion.

This does not necessarily mean that the fund incurred a loss, as the actual purchase price of the shares has not been disclosed and part of the stake was acquired before the offering.

It does, however, demonstrate how strongly the value of the investment can be affected by movements in a single stock.

Form 13F also provides only a snapshot of holdings on a specific date. It does not show whether the fund bought or sold additional shares after June 30.

Opportunities and Risks

The investment gives the fund direct exposure to one of the world’s largest space and technology companies and allows it to benefit from the growth of satellite communications, commercial launches and artificial intelligence.

The stake is also associated with several risks:

• The company’s high valuation relative to its current earnings.
• Share-price volatility following the offering.
• The scale of spending required for space and computing projects.
• Heavy dependence on Elon Musk’s decisions and management.
• The involvement of some company activities in highly sensitive government and security contracts.
• The concentration of significant value in one company operating in a rapidly changing sector.

The quality of the investment should therefore not be measured by the size of the stake alone, but by the entry price, holding period, realized returns and whether it produces partnerships and economic benefits inside the Kingdom.

BETH Comment

The disclosure marks a shift in the profile of the Public Investment Fund’s global technology investments—from holding stakes in major companies to becoming one of the leading institutional shareholders in a business that brings together space, communications and artificial intelligence.

The headline figure nevertheless requires a disciplined reading: $26.3 billion is not a disclosed purchase price, but a snapshot of the stake’s market value on a single day.

Its deeper value will be determined not only by the share price, but by Saudi Arabia’s ability to turn its investment position in SpaceX into a pathway connecting technology, space and artificial intelligence with the Saudi economy.

The investment will not be complete merely when the fund buys shares in the future, but when it brings part of that future back to the Kingdom.