I recently wrote an article in which I tried to assess what might happen at four popular funds and exchange-traded funds that had taken pre-IPO stakes in SpaceX SPCX. The question was how much these funds stood to gain from their SpaceX stake between then and the IPO.
Now that SpaceX has made its public debut, we can review how each fund fared in the runup to the offering and on IPO day itself.
Baron Partners Fund BPTIX
Baron Partners entered June with a 23% weight in SpaceX, the largest stake of the four funds. But I estimate it received $1.8 billion in inflows through June 11, which likely diluted the position as a percentage weight. (The fund’s May 31 holdings data reported weights as a percentage of total investments, inclusive of leverage. Since we don’t know the fund’s total investments as of that date, it’s not possible to determine the stake’s weight as a percentage of net assets.)
On June 4, Baron marked up its SpaceX stake from around $105 per share to $135 per share, matching the preliminary offering price. (It hasn’t changed its mark since then.) Assuming the position still soaked up at least 20% of net assets on that date, the fund would have reaped a nearly 6-percentage-point benefit from that markup.
With SpaceX opening at $150 per share today and the fund’s weight still likely exceeding 15% of net assets, it stands to reason it saw another 150- to 200-basis-point boost to performance thanks to the IPO itself.
Baron First Principles ETF RONB
The Baron ETF had a much smaller percentage stake in SpaceX, with the position accounting for 1.8% of net assets as of June 4, 2026, when it marked it up in the same manner Baron Partners had. That markup would have yielded a roughly half-percentage-point benefit to the ETF.
The position entered IPO day as a 2.8% weight, and thus the pop at the open conferred about 30 basis points or so of extra return to the ETF.
Tema Space Innovators ETF NASA
The Tema ETF entered June with a 9.4% SpaceX weight, which it obtained via a special-purpose vehicle. Unlike Baron, it came into June carrying SpaceX at a mark far closer to the eventual $135 per share offering price. Thus, when it marked up the position on June 10, from $127 per share to $135, I estimate the ETF saw only a modest half-percentage-point NAV boost, as the position’s weight had by then shrunk to 6.8% amid continued inflows in June.
Based on my estimates, the SpaceX position probably generated another 60 basis points or so of appreciation for the ETF at the first tick of trading, reflecting the difference between its $135 per share mark and the $150 opening price, coupled with its 5.5% weight entering the day.
ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF XOVR
Lastly, the ERShares ETF came into June with a 14.4% weight in a SpaceX SPV.
Like the Tema ETF, it entered the month with the SpaceX position valued near the eventual $135 per share offering price. (ERShares has disclosed that the SpaceX exposure held by the SPV reflected a $1.55 trillion valuation but did not disclose a per-share mark.) This could explain why it did not mark up the position in June before the IPO, though it did so previously in April and May.
With SpaceX opening at $150 per share, the ETF would have seen a roughly 11% gain from the IPO pop (assuming the position was marked near $135 per share entering the IPO). Taken together with the position’s 13.8% weight entering today, I estimate that it contributed around 160 basis points to the ETF’s returns.
Here is the hypothetical growth of $10,000 invested in these four funds from March 30, 2026 (which is when the Tema ETF incepted) through June 11, 2026. It does not reflect the funds’ returns on June 12, when SpaceX’s IPO took place.
Stepping Back
How did these funds make out over the life of their SpaceX investments?
Baron Partners Fund walked away the biggest winner in dollar terms by a long shot. As of March 31, 2026, Baron reported its stake in SpaceX common and preferred shares had a cost basis of around $110 million and a fair value of nearly $4 billion.
The June 4 markup would have pushed the position’s fair value another billion or so higher, and the IPO pop likely stacked another half billion on top of that. (We can’t say definitively since we don’t know the dollar value of the fund’s stake entering the offering.) If that’s in the ballpark, it would mean the fund earned around 50 times its money on the investment through the IPO open, a huge haul.
Because they’re so much newer than the Baron fund, which initiated its SpaceX stake in 2017, the other three ETFs’ gains pale in comparison. Baron First Principles ETF took separate stakes in xAI and SpaceX in December 2025 and January 2026, respectively. Those positions, which were consolidated when the two firms merged, look to have a combined cost basis of $25 million. After the June 4 markup and today’s offering, I estimate that stake is worth around $42.8 million, meaning the ETF earned about 70% on its investment in just six months.
With respect to Tema Space Innovators ETF, it’s even newer than the Baron ETF, having only incepted in March 2026. Thus, it initiated its SpaceX stake at a relatively high mark, reflecting the prevailing price at the time. Inclusive of markups and reflecting the stock’s opening, the ETF looks like it will pocket a roughly 37% gain on its investment.
Finally, the ERShares ETF has owned a stake in SpaceX since December 2024. Over that time, I estimate it has purchased SpaceX shares with a cost basis of around $235 million in total. Including several markups and the IPO pop, the ETF will have racked up around $99 million in gains on the position, excluding fees. That’s a healthy return in dollar terms, but in percentage terms it falls far shy of the change in SpaceX’s valuation, that shortfall likely stemming from expenses and potential dilution associated with the SPVs that the ETF utilized to obtain SpaceX exposure.