Back in January 2015, Google wired somewhere between $500 million and $900 million into SpaceX as part of a $1 billion round alongside Fidelity Investments. SpaceX was worth about $12 billion at the time. Fast forward to today, and Alphabet's Q2 10-Q filing puts the value of that same stake at $94.1 billion, roughly 6% of the company.
That number finally gives markets a hard figure. For years, Alphabet reported its SpaceX holding using private-market estimates, which are murky at best. Now that SpaceX trades publicly on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, the valuation is real and visible. The filing breaks the position into two buckets: about $80 billion in shares under short-term lockup restrictions, and another $14.1 billion locked up through the third quarter of 2027. So Alphabet is sitting on a fortune it cannot easily touch.
Google's original slice was close to 7.5% of SpaceX. That percentage drifted lower over time as SpaceX kept raising money and issuing new shares, diluting early investors. The dollar value, though, kept climbing as SpaceX's valuation shot upward. The company used those later funding rounds to build out the Starlink satellite network, develop the Starship launch vehicle and scale its reusable-rocket operations.
The xAI merger changed the math
A significant shift came in February 2026 when SpaceX absorbed Elon Musk's AI company xAI in a deal that valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, pushing the combined entity to $1.25 trillion before its stock-market debut. xAI became a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary but kept some legal separation, a structure that let investors defer capital-gains taxes and kept xAI's liabilities from landing directly on SpaceX's balance sheet. Alphabet's own stock has had a rough stretch, which makes the SpaceX windfall look even more striking by comparison.
SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share and raised around $75 billion, opening on Nasdaq on June 12 with an initial valuation near $1.75 trillion. The shares have since traded below that $135 IPO price, which trims Alphabet's paper gains somewhat. Still, $94 billion on what was at most a $900 million check is a return most funds would not dare dream about.
The lockup situation is the real constraint right now. Alphabet cannot liquidate most of this position even if it wanted to. The bulk of shares stays frozen until at least late 2027, meaning the company is exposed to wherever SPCX trades between now and then. Whether that turns out to be a problem or a gift depends entirely on how SpaceX performs as a public company.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
