SpaceX IPO to launch this group of teachers into dream retirement — massive $11B jackpot possible. How to ride the wave
June 11, 2026
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A seven-year-old bet on Elon Musk may be about to blast off in spectacular fashion.
Back in 2019 (1), a Canadian-based teachers’ pension fund invested roughly $220 million into SpaceX when the rocket company was valued at around $35 billion. Now, with SpaceX reportedly targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation in its long-awaited IPO, that stake could be worth as much as $11.6 billion (2).
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That’s a possible return of more than 5,100%.
The investor wasn’t a Silicon Valley venture capital firm or a billionaire hedge fund manager, but an Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) (3), a managed retirement savings plan for 346,000 teachers.
The potential windfall highlights just how much wealth can be created before a company ever reaches the public market. And it raises a question for everyday investors — where can you find the next wave of growth once a company like SpaceX has already become a household name?
A $220 million investment that could be worth $11.6 billion
According to Forbes, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan invested approximately $220 million in SpaceX in 2019, when the company was valued between $33 billion and $36 billion.
Today, SpaceX is reportedly seeking a valuation of over $1 trillion ahead of its planned Nasdaq debut. If the IPO meets this benchmark, the pension fund’s stake could hit that $11.6 billion.
Few investments generate life-changing returns. Even fewer grow more than 50-fold in less than a decade — that’s a feat achieved by less than 0.1% of listed U.S. stocks over any rolling ten-year window, according to analysis done by Baillie Gifford of Morgan Stanley (4) on market ‘skewness’.
The gains have already helped boost the pension fund’s venture-growth portfolio. In March, the organization reported a 30% surge in that segment during 2025 (5), driven largely by its investment in SpaceX.
In 2019, SpaceX was still a privately held aerospace company working to expand its launch business and roll out its Starlink satellite network. Investors who bought in early were betting on a vision that had yet to fully materialize.
Finding opportunities at that stage is notoriously difficult. By the time most investors hear about a company, much of the explosive growth has already happened.
That doesn’t mean you’re out of options. The key to unlocking your next windfall is developing a repeatable process to find those promising businesses before they become household names. However, doing this alone is essentially a full-time job. It can be hard to find the time to do this research between work and family.
This is when a little help might be appropriate.
Moby offers expert research and recommendations backed by former hedge fund analysts, helping investors uncover long-term opportunities without spending hours digging through financial statements and earnings reports.
Across nearly 400 stock picks over four years, Moby’s recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average. They provide stock and crypto reports delivered straight to you, along with easy-to-understand analysis designed for both new and experienced investors.
Moby’s research can help cut through the noise and reduce the guesswork behind choosing stocks and ETFs, making you a smarter investor in just five minutes.
Plus, subscribers can try the service with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Most investors won’t find a 50-bagger, but they don’t need to
In reality, most long-term wealth isn’t built through a single moonshot. Though we all want to believe our next investment is the one that’ll make a life-changing amount of money, even large institutional investors with extensive research teams experience setbacks along the way.
SpaceX may prove to be one of the most successful investments in the fund’s history. Other bets haven’t worked out nearly as well. After investing $95 million in FTX (6), the same Ontario-based pension fund eventually wrote the entire position down to zero following the crypto exchange’s collapse.
One investment may have generated billions in gains. The other became a complete loss.
That’s one reason it’s important to stay consistent. A portfolio spread across a couple of strong core investments can reduce the impact of any single mistake while still allowing investors to participate in long-term market growth.
For investors who struggle to stay consistent, there’s Acorns. It’s the investing app that helps users put money to work automatically and is tailored to your risk tolerance, but leaning towards safety.
By rounding up everyday purchases and investing the spare change into a diversified portfolio, Acorns helps you unlock compounding wealth without a second thought.
For example, if you spend $3.25 on a coffee, Acorns can round the purchase up to $4 and invest the remaining 75 cents. Those small contributions can add up over months and years without requiring major changes to your budget.
The platform also allows users to make recurring investments, helping them build long-term investing habits instead of trying to guess which stock could become the next SpaceX. This is sometimes called dollar cost averaging.
Even better, sign up today, and you can get a $20 bonus investment to help jumpstart your portfolio.
That said, pension funds rarely rely on equities alone. Big portfolios often include a mix of alternative investments — from private businesses and infrastructure projects to real estate.
Private markets aren’t the only way to access alternative assets
Most Americans can’t buy into a company like SpaceX years before its IPO. That doesn’t mean alternative investments are entirely out of reach.
Real estate, for example, has historically played an important role in diversified portfolios, generating income through rent while offering the potential for long-term appreciation. PWL Capital (7) even went so far as to name it the “Best Investment in History.”
And if you aren’t ready to jump into homeownership (financially or otherwise), there are platforms like Arrived that let you buy stakes in rental properties, earn dividends and skip the responsibilities of property management.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived’s easy-to-use platform offers SEC-qualified investments such as rental homes and vacation rentals for as little as $100.
Their flexible investment options allow both accredited and non-accredited investors to benefit from this inflation-hedging asset class with ease.
You start by browsing vetted properties, then you simply select a property and choose the number of shares to buy.
And for a limited time, when you open an account and add $1,000 or more, Arrived will credit your account with a 1% match.
Now, real estate isn’t the only asset you can turn to when market valuations are on the fritz.
SpaceX believers aren’t the only ones placing big bets
Not everyone is convinced SpaceX deserves its reported valuation.
Analysts at Morningstar (8) have suggested the company may be worth substantially less than its IPO target, highlighting the uncertainty that often surrounds fast-growing companies. They peg it at $63 a share, a “53% discount.” This is far below the launch price of $135 per share, per CNBC (9).
That’s not unusual. Throughout market history, periods of excitement around emerging technologies have often been accompanied by debates about whether investors are overly optimistic.
Some investors embrace that risk in pursuit of higher returns. Others look for assets that have historically served a different role within a portfolio.
Gold, for example, has often attracted investors seeking a hedge against inflation, currency weakness and periods of market volatility.
One way to invest in gold that also offers significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with Priority Gold’s help.
Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, combining the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold and making it an attractive option for those looking to hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainty.
To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $10,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases
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Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (1), (3), (6); Forbes (2); Morgan Stanley (4); Bloomberg (5); PWL Capital (7); Contentstack (8); CNBC (9)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
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