Want to Buy SpaceX Before Its IPO? This Venture Fund Crushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 in the Past Year.

2 weeks ago 14

Trevor Jennewine, The Motley Fool

Mon, May 4, 2026 astatine 4:04 AM CDT 5 min read

In the past year, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) precocious 27% and the Nasdaq-100 precocious 38%. Those are awesome returns by immoderate standard, but the Ark Venture Fund (NASDAQMUTFUND: ARKVX) soared 67% due to the fact that it is heavy invested successful 2 backstage companies: SpaceX and OpenAI.

Here's what investors should know.

Will AI make the world's archetypal trillionaire? Our squad conscionable released a study connected the 1 little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the captious exertion Nvidia and Intel some need. Continue »

An upward-trending greenish arrow shown connected U.S. currency.

Ark Venture Fund has crushed the S&P 500 since its inception

The Ark Venture Fund is an actively managed closed-end interval fund. The manager, Ark Invest, says it seeks to seizure semipermanent superior appreciation by owning some backstage and nationalist equities that are applicable to its taxable of disruptive innovation.

As of May 3, the Ark Venture Fund had astir 80% of its assets invested successful backstage companies, portion the remaining 20% were invested successful nationalist companies. The apical 10 positions are listed by value below:

SpaceX: 13.8%
OpenAI: 9.2%
Kalshi: 4.3%
Replit: 3.8%
Ayar Labs: 3.4%
Figure AI: 3.2%
Anthropic: 3%
Databricks: 2.5%
Zipline International: 2.3%
Radiant Industries: 2.1%

The Ark Venture Fund has returned 152% (28.3% annually) since its inception successful August 2022, portion the S&P 500 has returned 69% (15.2% annually) during the aforesaid period. The superior crushed the money outperformed by much than 80 percent points is vulnerability to SpaceX and OpenAI, though vulnerability to Anthropic has besides contributed.

To elaborate, SpaceX's valuation has accrued 730% to $1.25 trillion since Ark archetypal took a involvement successful the rocket and outer institution successful precocious 2023. Meanwhile, OpenAI's valuation has surged 870% to $852 cardinal since Ark archetypal took a involvement successful the artificial quality start-up successful aboriginal 2024.

Both companies are reportedly readying to database shares successful 2026, and the IPOs volition apt beryllium catalysts for further terms appreciation. Reuters reports that SpaceX is seeking an archetypal valuation of $1.75 trillion, portion OpenAI is seeking an archetypal valuation of $1 trillion.

The Ark Venture Fund is comparatively risky and somewhat inconvenient

The Ark Venture Fund is comparatively hazard and somewhat inconvenient for a fewer reasons. First, it is an interval fund, meaning investors cannot merchantability shares astatine their discretion. Instead, Ark provides liquidity by offering to acquisition shares connected a quarterly basis. But full redemptions are constricted to 5% of outstanding shares each quarter, meaning investors whitethorn not beryllium capable to merchantability their full presumption successful 1 go.

Read Entire Article