Bits & Pieces
Edition #283 | 12/06/2026
Most traded | Markets & Macro | Stock | Chart of the Week | ETFs | ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News
Bits & Pieces is firing up the engines and heading straight for your inbox. Buckle up – SpaceX has blasted off into public markets orbit. In this Rocket Edition, we break down the astronomical numbers behind the IPO and explore why outer space alone isn’t big enough for Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar ambitions. Plus: Why the real winners of the space boom are often much closer to Earth – packed onto tiny silicon chips – and which ETFs could help investors ride the trend.
Note: The data refers to the ratio of purchases and sales of the 100 most traded stocks on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Broker between 05/06/2026 and 12/06/2026.
Rocket launch or crash landing?
That’s the question as SpaceX begins trading tonight. At a $1.8 trillion IPO valuation – more than 90x revenue – expectations are, quite literally, sky-high. At the same time, broader market sentiment has turned more fragile. Some of the AI high-flyers of recent weeks have temporarily dropped into double digits – perhaps also because investors needed to free up cash to take part in the biggest IPO in market history?
Money is no longer flowing quite so freely in the Eurozone either. After the European Central Bank (ECB) cut its deposit rate in eight steps from 4% to 2% across 2024 and 2025 and then held rates steady for a year, the tide has now turned: With a 25-basis-point hike, policymakers are responding to inflation running at 3% – still well above the ECB’s 2% target. For an already sluggish economy, that brings risks. But price stability remains the ECB’s mandate – and unlike in 2021, the goal now is to get ahead of the inflation wave rather than react too late.
In the US, inflation climbed to 4.2% in May while the economy continues to hum. Under normal circumstances, that would argue for higher interest rates – yet the US president is pushing hard for cheaper money. All eyes will therefore be on newly appointed Fed Chair Kevin Warsh as he assesses the outlook following Wednesday’s FOMC meeting. Even the slightest doubts about the central bank’s independence could send both equity and bond markets into a sharp bout of turbulence.
A cosmic spectacle
Back in 2002, Elon Musk travelled to Moscow to buy used intercontinental rockets. Russian generals reportedly laughed him out of the room – and a frustrated Musk went on to found SpaceX. “Rockets, really?” even Maye Musk, Elon’s mother, recalled saying at a JPMorgan investor event in early June. She said she rolled her eyes at the idea. At the time, Musk’s seemingly outlandish ambitions drew more ridicule than admiration.
After three failed launches, the company came close to bankruptcy in 2008. Today, SpaceX dominates the global orbital launch market, accounting for roughly 85% of payload tonnage sent into orbit. Then there’s Starlink: a satellite network bringing broadband internet to some of the world’s most remote regions – and one that could eventually evolve into a global telecom carrier.
But even that may not justify a trillion-dollar valuation.
That’s why Musk is pitching SpaceX’s IPO as an AI story: orbital data centres as the backbone of a planet-scale digital infrastructure. Goldman Sachs even expects AI-related activities to generate more revenue than the traditional space business by 2030.
That is also where the risk lies.
Because xAI posted an operating loss of more than $6 billion in 2025 and, so far, has not been seen as the technological frontrunner in the race against OpenAI and Anthropic.
At the same time, Musk is cementing an unprecedented concentration of power. Through a special share structure, he retains 85.1% of voting rights, effectively insulating himself from outside control – including over potential conflicts of interest. SpaceX recently bought large numbers of Tesla Cybertrucks, while NVIDIA chips were reportedly redirected from Tesla to xAI.
For Tesla investors, that may be a warning shot: Musk’s financial exposure to SpaceX is now four times larger than his stake in Tesla.
That makes SpaceX something other than a typical stock – less a ticker symbol, more a baptism certificate for a new market religion.
The Rocket Race
Maximum payload capacity to low Earth orbit (LEO)
Sources: BBC, SpaceX, Blue Origin
Long before its IPO, SpaceX had already made history. With reusable rockets, the Starlink satellite network, and ambitious plans for Mars, Elon Musk has fundamentally reshaped the space industry.
For a simple reason: Space is brutally capital-intensive.
For decades, rockets were discarded after a single flight – an approach roughly equivalent to scrapping a passenger jet after every long-haul trip. SpaceX broke with that model. The boosters of its Falcon rockets land autonomously on platforms at sea and can be flown again, dramatically reducing launch costs.
That is the company’s key competitive edge.
While rivals such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are trying to catch up with New Glenn, and NASA continues to rely on costly expendable systems for parts of its portfolio, SpaceX is already working on the next leap forward.
Its Starship vehicle is designed to carry more than 100 tonnes of payload and could redefine what is possible for lunar missions, satellite deployment, and eventually journeys to Mars. Following the latest round of test flights, real-world deployment is moving closer.
If SpaceX pulls it off, Starship may not only reshape the economics of space – it could also open the door to the next era of human space exploration.
The Space Ecosystem
Long before the countdown reaches zero, a rocket launch is already powered by an intricate chain of components, software, and calculations running behind the scenes. In many ways, the real pilots are tiny slices of silicon.
Modern launch vehicles are essentially flying computers – and without high-performance chips handling guidance and navigation, they would never leave the launchpad. That puts semiconductor companies such as STMicroelectronics and AMD in a strong position to benefit. But hardware alone is not enough to navigate safely through orbit.
Starlink alone operates a vast network of nearly 10,000 satellites racing around Earth at roughly 27,000 km/h. Massive computing power – increasingly supported by artificial intelligence – keeps the system running and helps prevent collisions. The same technologies are also used in launch systems to calculate everything from successful lift-off and safe flight paths to pinpoint landings.
The so-called “Space Economy” is no longer science fiction. In a study, Morgan Stanley projected the market could reach $1 trillion by 2040 at the latest.
And investors do not necessarily need to buy into a rocket IPO to participate in that value creation story.
Zoom out, and an entire universe of established tech suppliers, semiconductor giants, and AI pioneers comes into view – the companies building the foundations for space exploration. 56 of them – including Rocket Lab, Esco Technologies, and Korea Aerospace – are included in the STOXX Global Space Satellites and Drones Index, for which iShares launched an ETF tracking just a few days ago.
From outer space back to the pitch: While SpaceX is reaching for the stars, FC Viktoria Berlin is writing a different story together with us – one about equal opportunity in football.
To mark the start of the Men’s World Cup, we’re giving away three limited-edition Tradewife special jerseys from the Berlin team on Instagram.
Here’s how to enter:
Follow and on Instagram, count the jerseys shown in our post, and comment with the number plus your preferred size.
The giveaway closes on 17 June 2026 at 11:59 pm.
Editorial deadline: Friday, 7 a.m.
Sources: ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø and dpa-AFX