Barcelona, Spain – 02.03.2026: Space X logo is seen on display, a space exploration company owned by Elon Musk. Credit: davide bonaldo via Shutterstock Vy Capital, a Dubai firm with a core investment team of four, holds about 3.4% of SpaceX worth roughly $40B, making it the fifth-largest shareholder and larger than Sequoia or Andreessen Horowitz. Europe’s sovereign alternative to Starlink costs EUR 15.6B and will not enter service until 2030. Vy Capital holds about 3.4% of SpaceX, worth roughly $40B, which makes it the company’s fifth-largest shareholder, the Financial Times reported.
That is more than the disclosed stakes of Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz. The firm has dozens of staff and a core investment team of four. It is based in Dubai and run by Alexander Tamas. It has also put money into the Boring Company and Neuralink, and into the financing of Musk’s Twitter purchase.
It first invested in 2016, when SpaceX was valued at about $15B. The company listed on Nasdaq in June at roughly $1.77T, with Musk keeping the voting control he had before. Vy Capital’s assets under management went from $27B at the end of last year to $50B in June. The SpaceX position is most of that.
The firm reports an internal rate of return of 41% and $4.6B returned to investors. It stopped taking money from new outside investors last year. Set that against what Europe is building. IRIS2, the constellation meant to give European governments connectivity they do not have to ask anyone for, runs to EUR 15.6B and 348 satellites.
First launches are due in 2029 and service in 2030. One investor’s holding in SpaceX is worth about two and a half times the entire programme. The comparison is not quite fair, because a stake is a market price and a constellation is a capital plan. It is still the shape of the problem.
Europe is assembling a consortium, three operators and four manufacturers, to build by 2030 what private capital has already financed. Brussels is using the tools it has. Current licences on the 2 GHz mobile satellite band expire in May 2027. It plans to reserve two-thirds of that band for EU-registered companies.
Spectrum is a real lever, and it is not the same lever as capital. European institutions could not have joined Vy Capital’s position even if they had wanted to, because the fund closed to new outside money before the listing. The route in now is the public market, after the private gains were taken. Tamas has told investors SpaceX could pass $10T within five to seven years.
Europe’s satellites will still be arriving. Also tagged with
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