SpaceX Could Reach $10 Trillion Or More Says Ron Baron

Baron Capital founder and CEO Ron Baron says SpaceX could deliver huge gains after a future public listing, with Elon Musk and new space-based business lines at the center of that outlook.

Good to Know

• SpaceX filed to go public in April, according to Baron.
• Ron Baron said the IPO valuation could land near $1.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion.
• Baron believes SpaceX could reach $10 trillion, $20 trillion, or even $30 trillion over 10 to 15 years.

Baron sees SpaceX as more than a rocket company. In his view, reusable spacecraft, Starlink, artificial intelligence needs, and possible space data centers could all feed into a much larger valuation. He said:

“So when you go public, I don’t know if it’s going public at $1.5 trillion or $1.75 trillion or maybe a little bit more. But where it goes public, I think that the company over the next 10 or 15 years is going to be worth $10 trillion, $20 trillion, $30 trillion. And I could be very low. It could be very low on where it’s going to be.”

Elon Musk And Reusable Rockets

Baron tied much of the SpaceX growth case to Elon Musk. He said Musk changed the economics of the space business by backing reusable rockets when other companies had no reason to reduce demand for new hardware :

“So what enabled this company? It’s him [Elon Musk]. So he comes up with the idea that you’ll be able to launch a rocket and reuse it. And no one ever did that before. And no other rocket company was interested in doing that. Because if they did, then what would happen is that there would not be a demand for as many rockets. So nobody wanted to do this.

“And they always said it was impossible. They said it was impossible because nobody tried. And when they did try, nobody’s been able to accomplish it. So that’s what enabled this. That’s what enabled us to have Starlink.”

Falcon 9 gave SpaceX a reusable rocket platform, while Starlink added a consumer and enterprise satellite internet business. Baron now sees another possible layer: space data centers.

Data centers on Earth need huge amounts of power and water. According to Baron space could offer a different cost structure, with sunlight providing energy and radiators helping with cooling. He said:

“After you have that, and now we have the Falcon 9 [reusable spacecraft]…

“… then we decided, hey, wait, there’s a demand for space data centers instead of having data centers on our planet where it’s very, very difficult… …water is short and electricity is a problem. You don’t need the cooling in space, number one, as long as you have giant radiators.

“And then electricity, which is a huge cost, you don’t need that either, because you’re using the sun. So basically, you’re getting free electricity and free cooling once you get into space.”