ARK Invest bought nearly 3.3 million shares of SpaceX (SPCX) when Elon Musk’s company went public in the largest initial public offering in history on Friday, amassing a stake worth more than $500 million by the end of the day.
The shares, priced at $135, closed at $160.95, rising more than 19.2% on their first day.
The Cathie Wood-owned company liquidated nearly $280 million in shares the week before the listing and then sold another roughly 948,000 shares in 13 companies worth at least $48 million on Friday, including Advanced Micro Devices, Roku and Baidu, according to daily emailed statements during the period.
The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) did the most buying and ended the day with SpaceX holding 3.28% of its portfolio.
A nearly 20% first-day surge in the largest IPO in history indicates that institutions are once again paying for high-beta innovation risk. While bitcoin is the highest-beta asset of the bunch, the hottest trade in the market is now a wave of AI and space listings, with OpenAI and Anthropic also filing to go public.
