Middle Eastern Sovereign Funds Reportedly Submit Multi-Billion Dollar Orders for SpaceX IPO
Claire Weston
Saudi Arabia's PIF and Kuwait's KIA have each placed $1 billion to $5 billion in orders for the SpaceX IPO, with Qatar's QIA likely to follow; this marks the first public-market payoff of the Gulf's AI investment strategy.
Who placed how much?
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) have each submitted orders of $1 billion to $5 billion. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA, $580 billion in assets) may also make a large commitment.
All three are already significant SpaceX shareholders. At Musk's target valuation of $1.8 trillion, each holds substantial unrealised gains.
Some of the subscription may go toward anti-dilution — protecting existing stakes from being watered down by newly issued shares — but the exact split is unclear.
Why is this more than just an IPO subscription?
PIF's subsidiary Humain invested $3 billion in Musk's xAI this year, with terms to convert that stake into SpaceX shares. This means → the money entered through AI but lands as publicly traded SpaceX stock.
Abu Dhabi's MGX holds stakes in Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI simultaneously; QIA has positions in both Anthropic and xAI.
In plain terms = Gulf sovereign funds have spent two years betting heavily on AI. SpaceX is the first of those bets to reach a public market — whether paper gains turn into real returns hinges on this listing.
How large is global demand?
Bloomberg reports that investor orders already exceed the shares available, with some single institutions bidding $10 billion or more.
Final allocations will be well below order sizes. This means → even large Gulf orders are likely to be scaled back significantly.
How deep does Musk's Middle East relationship go?
The Boring Company will build the Dubai Loop underground transit system; Emirates is upgrading fleet Wi-Fi through Starlink.
Neuralink — Musk's brain-computer interface company — plans to run its first clinical trial in the Middle East.
This reflects a relationship that has moved far beyond capital. Musk's ventures are now embedded across the region — transport, telecoms, healthcare.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.