A Dubai-based investment firm with just four core team members has quietly assembled a position in SpaceX worth approximately $40 billion—a stake that exceeds what better-known venture firms like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz have disclosed. According to the Financial Times, Vy Capital's 3.4% holding makes it the fifth-largest shareholder in Elon Musk's rocket company.
Run by Alexander Tamas, Vy Capital operates with dozens of employees overall but maintains a lean investment decision-making structure. Beyond SpaceX, the firm has invested in Musk's other ventures, including the Boring Company and Neuralink, and participated in financing the billionaire's acquisition of Twitter.
The fund's entry into SpaceX came in 2016, when the company carried a valuation of roughly $15 billion. Following SpaceX's Nasdaq listing in June at approximately $1.77 trillion, Musk retained voting control of the enterprise. Vy Capital's assets under management ballooned from $27 billion at year-end to $50 billion by June, with the SpaceX position representing the lion's share of that growth. The firm has generated an internal rate of return of 41% and returned $4.6 billion to its backers.
The fund closed its doors to new outside investors last year, effectively locking in early participants and preventing fresh capital from accessing its positions.
Europe's Satellite Gamble
By contrast, Europe is pursuing IRIS2, a satellite constellation designed to provide governments with independent connectivity. The programme carries a price tag of EUR 15.6 billion and involves 348 satellites. Initial launches are scheduled for 2029, with operational service commencing in 2030.
A single investor's stake in SpaceX is worth approximately two and a half times the entire European initiative. While the comparison conflates a market valuation with a capital expenditure plan, it illustrates a fundamental imbalance: private money has already financed what Europe is still assembling through a consortium of three operators and four manufacturers.
Brussels is deploying the regulatory tools at its disposal. Licences for the 2 GHz mobile satellite band expire in May 2027, and the European Commission intends to reserve two-thirds of that spectrum for EU-registered companies. Spectrum allocation represents genuine leverage, though it operates through a different mechanism than capital deployment.
European institutions could not have joined Vy Capital's position even if they had wished to do so, given that the fund restricted new outside investment before the SpaceX listing. Access to the company now flows exclusively through public markets, after private investors have already captured their gains.
Tamas has communicated to investors that SpaceX could achieve a valuation exceeding $10 trillion within five to seven years. Europe's satellites, meanwhile, will still be in their launch phase.
Source: The Next Web
