Space has become the hottest trade on Wall Street, and one ETF is gaining massive traction.
Retail investors are rushing to get a piece of SpaceX before it goes public. Some are buying the stock directly through brokerage platforms, while others are turning to a fund that already owns it.
The Tema Space Innovators ETF (NASA) has become the go-to vehicle for that crowd. Launched on March 30, 2026, it crossed $1 billion in assets under management in just 37 trading days.
By the end of last week, the fund had surpassed $2.6 billion, according to CNBC.
That kind of growth is nearly unheard of for a new fund. So what’s driving it, and should you care?
The space economy is bigger than most investors realize
Before diving into the ETF itself, it helps to understand why space is such a hot theme right now.
The global space economy was worth roughly $630 billion in 2023. By 2035, it is forecast to nearly triple to $1.79 trillion, according to McKinsey and Company.
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That growth is expected to come from areas including satellite communications, defense, space tourism, data infrastructure, and mining.
“Ten, twenty years ago, you talked about a space theme like this, an investor would have to go out and look up all these companies. Now there’s a ticker,” said Mike Akins, founding partner at ETF Action, CNBC reported.
Six space-themed ETFs have been launched over just the past three months. That wave of new products is itself a signal.
When fund companies rush to create products around a theme, it usually means they expect strong retail demand.
Strategas chief ETF strategist Todd Sohn told CNBC it reminded him of the early days of artificial intelligence (AI) investing.
NASA ETF gives retail investors rare SpaceX access
The NASA fund is an actively managed ETF run by Tema ETFs LLC. It invests at least 80% of its assets in companies deriving meaningful revenue from space-related business.
That includes rocket makers, satellite operators, GPS companies, and data collected from space.
Its top holding is Rocket Lab Corp (RKLB) at just over 10% of the fund. SpaceX comes in second with a special-purpose vehicle exposure of about 6.9%.
Related: Elon Musk sends startling message on SpaceX, Tesla merger
That SpaceX stake is a big part of the appeal. The company holds privately traded SpaceX shares, making it one of the very few investment options for everyday investors who want direct exposure.
Tema ETFs founder and CEO Maurits Pot was direct about why. “If we’re going to invest in space… we have to offer exposure to SpaceX,” he told CNBC‘s “ETF Edge.”
Pot also said the firm has no plans to sell its SpaceX shares once the IPO happens. His reasoning was simple: “The IPO for us is simply a remarking of the position to market price.”
A few other funds also offer exposure to SpaceX.
Ron Baron’s First Principles fund holds roughly 2% of its assets in SpaceX, CNBC noted.
The ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF also holds SpaceX shares, which it values at nearly $300 million, based on an expected IPO valuation north of $1.5 trillion, according to CNBC.
SpaceX IPO brings excitement and serious risks
SpaceX filed for its initial public offering (IPO) and could begin trading on the Nasdaq as early as June 12. The deal is expected to raise around $75 billion, making it the largest IPO on record, according to CNBC.
But the lead-up has not been without turbulence. A CNBC report states:
- Elon Musk raised eyebrows when he posted on X (the former Twitter), contradicting language in SpaceX’s own IPO prospectus.
- The filing described a deal in which Anthropic would pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 to lease computing capacity at its Colossus data center in Memphis.
- Musk characterized the deal very differently on X, calling it a short-term arrangement that could end in months.
The discrepancy put investors in a difficult spot.
“Either Musk is correct and the S-1 is materially misleading, or the S-1 is correct and Elon is up to his old hijinx,” Columbia Law professor Eric Talley told CNBC. “It’s confusing to investors who are trying to put a valuation on SpaceX.”
- SpaceX’s AI unit, now known as SpaceXAI, lost $2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
- Total capital expenditures surpassed $10 billion that quarter, with $7.7 billion tied to xAI.
- Comparatively, SpaceX’s full-year 2025 revenue was just $18.7 billion.
Source: CNBC
Analysts at PitchBook also flagged gaps in the IPO filing. Key figures on Starlink subscriber churn and the Falcon 9’s unit economics were not disclosed, according to CNBC.
Space is a compelling long-term story. But for investors jumping in now, knowing what’s inside the fund matters just as much as knowing the ticker.
Related: SpaceX lands a $4 billion deal right before its IPO
