Wood’s ARK buys more SpaceX after selloff, trims Alibaba stake

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought about $7 million of SpaceX shares after a pullback in the newly public rocket company’s stock, Fortune reported. The purchase shows ARK increasing its exposure to Elon Musk’s company even after SpaceX fell below its debut price.

Fortune reported that ARK funded the latest purchase in part by selling roughly 570,000 shares of Alibaba, citing Yahoo Finance. Alibaba had been part of ARK’s holdings since 2014, though Bloomberg reported that the firm reopened a position last year after a four-year absence with a $16.3 million investment across two exchange-traded funds.

The latest SpaceX purchase marks the third time ARK has added shares during a decline since the company’s IPO last month, according to Fortune. Investors.com reported that ARK bought about 3.3 million SpaceX shares across several ETFs on the day of the listing, a purchase estimated at about $500 million.

Fortune reported that ARK later added another $32 million of SpaceX stock after the company’s first major post-IPO selloff. ARK has also invested in SpaceX through private-market transactions since 2023, according to an ARK Invest Europe document cited by Fortune.

SpaceX shares were trading at $149 on Wednesday, down 13% over five days and 29% below their record closing high of $211 last month, according to Yahoo Finance data cited by Fortune. The company’s market capitalization stood at $1.9 trillion, Fortune reported.

ARK’s flagship Innovation ETF held 1.78 million SpaceX shares after the latest purchase, worth nearly $266 million, according to Fortune. ARK’s fund data showed SpaceX as the ETF’s seventh-largest holding, representing 4% of the portfolio.

ARK’s bullish case goes beyond rockets. In a valuation model published by the firm, ARK said SpaceX could reach an enterprise value of $3.1 trillion by 2030 in a best-case scenario, helped by aerospace, artificial intelligence and data-center businesses.

ARK’s 2026 Big Ideas report said SpaceX has cut the cost of sending mass into orbit by about 95% since 2008, to around $1,000 per kilogram. The firm said SpaceX could eventually lower that figure to $100 per kilogram.

That cost decline is central to Musk’s idea of building data centers in orbit, a concept tied to rising computing demands from AI. In a May Bloomberg interview, Wood said ARK believes the technology shift will exceed the industrial revolution and that orbital data centers will be needed.

Fortune has also reported skepticism from outside experts. Boon Ooi, a semiconductor expert and professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, previously told Fortune that producing one gigawatt of power in space would require a square kilometer of solar panels, creating a heavy and costly launch challenge.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has also criticized Musk’s orbital data-center plan, Fortune reported, saying he would focus on AI data centers on Earth because building in space would take years and require a large investment. ARK Invest did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.