As Elon Musk’s SpaceX goes public in what is the largest ever IPO in history, Indian retail investors too are eager to get a piece of the soon-to-be $1.75 trillion space and technology company.
Speaking to businessline, foreign investing platforms note an outsized interest among Indian retail investors for SpaceX compared with any previous global IPOs.
Retail access
Though the US IPO process does not reserve shares for retail investors from India, companies allot shares to specific brokers or investment bankers, which may then offer them to eligible retail clients.
Viram Shah, Founder and CEO, Vested Finance, a global investing platform, said that the SpaceX ticker, connected to the Nasdaq feed, is already live on the platform, and users are actively searching for it. “We have seen a surge in traffic on our platform as investors want to know more about this listing. Marquee IPOs always lead to traction but this has been unprecedented,” he said
He added that many customers are also making enquiries through social media and Vested’s community forums.
Shah said that retail investor demand for SpaceX could be seen even before the IPO. “For instance, private market vehicles like the Destiny Tech Fund (DXYZ), which holds shares in SpaceX, and is available on the Vested platform have seen strong traction” he said.
Sitashwa Srivastava, founder and CEO, Borderless, another such platform predicted that if the IPO allocation had been available to Indian retail investors, the demand could have translated into $50-100 million worth of investments.
He said that despite some concerns about the valuations, he expects the platform’s daily trading volume to more than double on Saturday after listing, driven largely by SpaceX-related demand.
Prathik Desai, a chartered accountant who has been investing in major US tech companies said, that he definitely plans to invest in the company and to hold the shares in the long term. “I will not immediately buy SpaceX once its listed. I am going to wait for some corrections for a few weeks. But there is a lot of upside in the long run,” he said.
Data from RBI shows that Indian investors interest in foreign equity continues to rise. Remittances under LRS relating to investment in foreign equity/debt, grew 56 per cent y-o-y to $2.7 billion in FY26.