SpaceX IPO – to the moon or overhyped?
SpaceX IPO has certainly polarised investor opinion
Opinium’s latest research reveals huge interest among UK investors in the SpaceX IPO coming up on Friday. Almost three quarters (72%) of UK investors have heard of the IPO which is set to be the largest ever public sale of shares making SpaceX one of the US’s top largest listed firms.
Thinking about their own portfolios there is a keenness among UK investors to purchase shares of SpaceX, 5% will have applied to purchase SpaceX shares before it’s IPO on Friday, with a further 10% who say they’ll be buying SpaceX shares on the day of it’s IPO.
This varies by generation as 25% of Gen X and Millennial investors say they’ll invest in SpaceX early (have already applied for shares or will buy on Friday), with a further 47% of Gen Z and 29% adopting a wait-and-see attitude by considering an investment in the days, weeks and months after its IPO based on its share price activity.
However older investors have not yet bought into the hype with only 9% of Gen X and 2% of Boomer investors stating they’ll invest early. Furthermore, a large proportion of these older investors will be avoiding SpaceX altogether, 66% of Gen X and 84% of Boomer investors state they won’t be investing directly in the business at all:
It’s not just the younger generations that have been convinced of SpaceX’s potential, among self-described knowledgeable investors there is an openness to invest in SpaceX. Knowledgeable investors are six percentage points more likely to invest early in SpaceX (21% vs 15% average), and again six percentage points more likely to considering investing in the coming days, weeks and months (31% vs 25% average) after the IPO.
Interestingly SpaceX is also attracting those who are involved in cryptocurrency, those who have invested in crypto are more than double the average likelihood to invest early (37% vs 15% average), and far more likely than the average to invest in SpaceX in the period of time after the IPO (43% vs 25% average).
Reasons for wanting to invest in SpaceX also vary based on demographic, among those who will invest early or will consider investing in the following days, weeks or months, a quarter (24%) believe the share price will increase over time. This is the top reason for investing for those aged 35+, however this is only the joint-top reason for those aged 18-34. Their joint top reason is due to the fear of missing out: 21% of 18-34 year old investors do not want to miss out on a high-profile IPO, this sentiment is shared by only 13% of those aged 35+:
Overall it’s clear that there is an appetite to be involved in the SpaceX journey, especially among younger UK investors to seem to have bought into the hype surrounding the IPO and the business. Whether or not this faith in SpaceX will be realised on Friday this still remains to be seen, but Opinium will be keeping a close eye on this.
We’re planning on running more investor insight on Anthropic and Open AI’s proposed IPOs later in the year, so check back in closer to the time for more of our latest insights.
This research was run on our Opinium Consumer omnibus collecting responses from 785 nationally representative UK investors.
