SpaceX IPO at $1.77T could mint $10.6B for Saudi’s Prince Alwaleed

SpaceX is working toward an IPO that would value the company at nearly $1.77 trillion, and one Gulf investor may feel that headline most directly. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, also known as the “Warren Buffett of Arabia,” owns a 0.63% stake in SpaceX that could be worth around $10.6 billion if the IPO hits its expected valuation. In other words: one listing could turn months of watching Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite internet, and AI ambitions into a very real balance-sheet moment for a key regional capital holder.

The broader Gulf story is just as concrete. SpaceX is targeting the IPO by selling 555.6 million shares at a fixed price of $135 each, and the initial public offering is expected to be among the largest stock market debuts in history. Fortune’s Gulf reporting frames the timing as “nicely-timed,” because Gulf sovereign wealth funds have not enjoyed the usual flow of petrodollars since the outbreak of the Iran war. So yes, the market mechanics matter here. But the deeper point is incentives: this IPO could crystallize enormous paper gains for Gulf investors, while also validating investment strategies the region began testing early with SpaceX and the related xAI business, which merged in early February to become a combined rocket, satellite internet, and AI company.

Zooming out, this is a test of how quickly public markets recognize transformational tech when the early money comes from private, patient balance sheets. Gulf states rank among the earliest investors in SpaceX and xAI, according to the source, and that early positioning matters because it is often where the real edge is. The question for decision-makers is not only whether SpaceX will price well. It is whether the IPO will serve as a clean public-market signal that Gulf-style long-horizon investing can underwrite platforms that reshape communications, power, and data routing.

SpaceX’s own filing also points to why Gulf investors may see this as more than financial theater. The company outlines plans to use some IPO capital to launch a constellation of up to one million data center satellites into orbit, positioned “far away from the resource and regulatory constraints on Earth.” The filing also claims that solar panels and laser optical communication in space can produce energy eight times more efficiently than ground-based systems, generating a total of 100 GW of power, which it equates to roughly 100 nuclear power plants. The prospectus acknowledges the technology is in its infancy, but the strategic logic is legible: for Gulf states, backing a space-based energy and connectivity build-out fits broader ambitions for digital and communications infrastructure.

That ambition is shaped by a risk environment that is becoming impossible to ignore. The source connects these plans to the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has highlighted that subsea cables can be vulnerable to geopolitical conflict just like oil tankers. The Strait is described as a single corridor that funnels both energy and data through a maritime chokepoint, which means disruptions can translate into both economic and communications shock. In that context, Starlink is framed as an “invaluable backup network” for critical industries during disruptions and regional cloud outages, and Musk’s efforts to build resilient communications infrastructure are presented as strategically aligned with what Gulf investors may want to hedge.

The operational risk story is reinforced by a concrete regional example. In early March, the Gulf’s cloud infrastructure was compromised when two Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain sustained direct hits from Iranian drones, or damage from nearby debris, according to the source. These events underline the point that resilience cannot be only about software or service contracts. It has to include routing, geography, and fallback architecture. If the Gulf’s communications and data infrastructure are exposed to kinetic events on the ground, then investing in a satellite-based layer becomes a kind of insurance that also happens to be a growth bet.

For Gulf sovereign wealth funds and their boards, the second-order implication is that the IPO is likely to act like a “balance sheet and worldview” moment at the same time. The listing can crystallize gains for direct holders and for the broader cluster of high-profile Gulf sovereign wealth funds with exposure to SpaceX through both direct and indirect investments, even if their stakes fall below reporting thresholds. That matters because it can change internal mandates. If a public-market debut confirms upside, it can accelerate willingness to allocate more to transformational platforms, not just to legacy energy and logistics.

There is also a competitive implication for other capital allocators watching from outside the region. If SpaceX’s debut lands at its expected nearly $1.77 trillion valuation and the strategy behind it proves credible, Gulf-backed resilience in communications and energy could become a template for how sovereign investors underwrite frontier infrastructure. And if that sounds abstract, the source supplies the grounded version: a constellation of up to one million data center satellites, laser optical links, and a space-based power claim of 100 GW. That is the kind of platform that, if it works, can make “geopolitical risk” less of a constraint and more of a design input.