ARK Invest bought about 3.3 million shares of SpaceX (SPCX) as Elon Musk’s company went public on Friday in the largest IPO in history, making the stake worth more than $500 million by the end of the day.
The stock, which had a sale price of $135, rose more than 19.2% on its first day to close at $160.95.
The Cathie Wood-owned company liquidated about $280 million in stock in the week before going public, and on Friday sold about 948,000 more shares worth at least $48 million in 13 companies, including Advanced Micro Devices, Roku and Baidu, according to a statement emailed daily during the period.
The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) accounted for the bulk of the buying, ending the day with SpaceX accounting for 3.28% of the portfolio.
The almost 20% first-day share price in the largest IPO in history shows that financial institutions are once again paying for high-beta innovation risk. Bitcoin is the highest beta asset in the group, but the most active transactions in the market right now are the waves of AI and space listings, with OpenAI and Anthropic also filing to list.
