The pension fund’s first innovation investment may become one of the greatest institutional venture-capital trades in Canadian history

In June 2019, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan made a decision that now looks remarkably prescient.

The pension manager invested approximately US$220 million—about C$300 million—in Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It was the inaugural investment for the newly created Teachers’ Innovation Platform, established to pursue late-stage companies capable of disrupting established industries and creating entirely new markets.[1]

At the time, SpaceX was still widely viewed as an ambitious private rocket company. Starlink was only beginning its deployment. Reusable rockets remained a technological novelty rather than the foundation of a global communications and transportation platform.

Seven years later, that early position could reportedly be worth as much as US$11.6 billion.

Should SpaceX complete its anticipated public listing at a valuation of approximately US$1.75 trillion, Ontario Teachers’ may be sitting on one of the most successful institutional technology investments ever made by a Canadian pension fund.[2]

The Difference Between US$300 Million and C$300 Million

The numbers require some clarification.

Ontario Teachers’ officially announced the SpaceX investment in 2019 but did not disclose its financial terms. Recent reporting, citing people familiar with the transaction, places the original investment at approximately US$220 million.

That was roughly C$300 million at the time.

The distinction matters because describing the original investment as US$300 million understates the potential return. If the initial US$220 million position is now worth US$11.6 billion, it represents an ending value of almost 53 times the original capital.

That would amount to a paper gain of more than 5,100 percent before considering dilution, secondary sales, additional purchases, currency movements, fees or taxes.

Ontario Teachers’ has also indicated that it added to its SpaceX position several times after the original transaction. Therefore, the pension plan’s complete exposure—and its potential eventual proceeds—could be larger than the estimated value attributed to the original 2019 shares.[3]

A First Investment With Enormous Consequences

The significance of the deal extends beyond its prospective financial return.

SpaceX was the first investment selected for the Teachers’ Innovation Platform, later renamed Teachers’ Venture Growth. The platform was created to invest in businesses using technology to overturn incumbent industries or establish new economic sectors.

SpaceX checked both boxes.

It attacked the economics of rocket launches by developing reusable boosters. Instead of discarding an enormously expensive rocket after a single mission, SpaceX demonstrated that key components could return to Earth, be refurbished and flown again.

That changed the cost structure of the launch industry.

SpaceX then used that advantage to deploy Starlink, a vast low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation providing broadband connectivity to consumers, businesses, ships, aircraft and governments.

Ontario Teachers’ was not merely investing in rockets. It was investing in an integrated infrastructure system combining launch vehicles, satellites, communications, defence applications and global data delivery.

Starlink Became the Commercial Engine

Starlink is now central to the valuation investors are assigning to SpaceX.

The satellite network transformed SpaceX from a company dependent mainly on launch contracts into a recurring-revenue communications business. Every additional satellite expands the network, while SpaceX’s control of its own rockets gives it a deployment advantage that traditional telecommunications companies cannot easily reproduce.

By early 2026, Starlink’s connectivity division was the only one of SpaceX’s three principal divisions reporting an operating profit for the first quarter. It produced approximately US$1.19 billion in operating profit during that period, even as heavy spending elsewhere pushed the consolidated company into a loss.[4]

That distinction is important.

The proposed SpaceX valuation is not based solely on selling rocket launches. It rests on the possibility that Starlink can become a global communications utility—a privately controlled layer of internet infrastructure operating above national borders.

For offshore investors, this represents a familiar principle: the most valuable infrastructure is often the infrastructure that connects jurisdictions.

From Rockets to Artificial Intelligence

SpaceX’s valuation story has expanded again following its acquisition of xAI.

The combination connects rockets, satellites, artificial intelligence, communications and computing infrastructure under one corporate structure. SpaceX has outlined ambitions involving solar-powered data centres in orbit and enormous quantities of AI computing capacity.

The concept is audacious. Space offers abundant solar energy and, in theory, opportunities to address some of the power, cooling and land constraints facing terrestrial AI data centres.

It is also highly speculative.

SpaceX’s AI division accounted for substantial losses and capital spending during the first quarter of 2026. Many of the technologies supporting the company’s long-term orbital-computing projections have not yet been commercially proven.[5]

Investors therefore appear to be assigning value not only to existing revenue, but to an ecosystem that could eventually include:

• Reusable space transportation;
• Starlink broadband and direct-to-mobile communications;
• Government and defence connectivity;
• Lunar and Mars infrastructure;
• Artificial-intelligence models and applications;
• Orbital computing and data centres.

That optionality helps explain how SpaceX moved from an approximately US$800 billion private-market valuation in late 2025 to a targeted public valuation of US$1.75 trillion only months later.[6]

The IPO Could Rewrite the Record Books

SpaceX is reportedly preparing to price its shares at US$135, targeting approximately US$75 billion in new capital and a valuation of US$1.75 trillion.

Trading is currently expected to begin on Nasdaq on June 12, 2026, provided the offering proceeds as planned.

At that valuation, SpaceX would immediately become one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. The offering could also become the largest initial public offering ever completed.

For Ontario Teachers’, however, an IPO does not necessarily mean totally an immediate exit.

Existing investors may be subject to lock-up restrictions, and pension executives have reportedly described SpaceX as a long-term holding rather than an asset that must be sold at the first available opportunity.

That could prove wise—or dangerous.

Public markets offer liquidity, but they also introduce daily volatility. A private valuation established during a financing round is one thing. Sustaining a near-US$2 trillion valuation under the scrutiny of quarterly earnings, public shareholders and securities regulators is another.

Not Every Innovation Investment Becomes SpaceX

There is also a warning inside this success story.

Venture investing produces highly uneven outcomes. A small number of extraordinary winners must often compensate for positions that stagnate or fail completely.

Ontario Teachers’ knows this firsthand. Its Teachers’ Venture Growth division previously lost its investment in the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

SpaceX demonstrates the other side of the equation: one exceptional investment can produce returns large enough to reshape the performance of an entire venture portfolio.

The lesson is not that pension funds should recklessly chase every fashionable technology company. It is that institutional investors require the governance, expertise and patience to identify genuine technological advantages before they become obvious to public markets.

Patient Capital Reaches Orbit

Ontario Teachers’ manages retirement assets for hundreds of thousands of working and retired educators. Its responsibility is not to speculate for headlines. Its responsibility is to earn durable, risk-adjusted returns over decades.

The SpaceX investment appears to be fulfilling that mandate spectacularly.

A roughly US$220 million decision made in 2019 may soon represent more than US$11 billion in market value. But the true achievement was not predicting an IPO price seven years in advance.

It was recognizing that reusable rockets and satellite broadband were becoming infrastructure—not science fiction.

The best offshore and institutional investments often share that characteristic. They appear unconventional at the beginning, illiquid during their development and obvious only after most of the value has already been created.

Ontario Teachers’ purchased its ticket before the countdown began.

Now, as SpaceX approaches the public market, that ticket may become one of the most valuable assets ever placed inside a Canadian pension portfolio.

One important correction is built into the article: recent reporting places the original investment at approximately US$220 million, or about C$300 million, rather than US$300 million. Ontario Teachers’ never officially disclosed the amount. (OTPP)

Ontario Teachers’ SpaceX Bet Could Turn C$300 Million Into an $11.6 Billion Fortune

The pension fund’s first innovation investment may become one of the greatest institutional venture-capital trades in Canadian history

In June 2019, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan made a decision that now looks remarkably prescient.

The pension manager invested approximately US$220 million—about C$300 million—in Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It was the inaugural investment for the newly created Teachers’ Innovation Platform, established to pursue late-stage companies capable of disrupting established industries and creating entirely new markets.[1]

At the time, SpaceX was still widely viewed as an ambitious private rocket company. Starlink was only beginning its deployment. Reusable rockets remained a technological novelty rather than the foundation of a global communications and transportation platform.

Seven years later, that early position could reportedly be worth as much as US$11.6 billion.

Should SpaceX complete its anticipated public listing at a valuation of approximately US$1.75 trillion, Ontario Teachers’ may be sitting on one of the most successful institutional technology investments ever made by a Canadian pension fund.[2]

The Difference Between US$300 Million and C$300 Million

The numbers require some clarification.

Ontario Teachers’ officially announced the SpaceX investment in 2019 but did not disclose its financial terms. Recent reporting, citing people familiar with the transaction, places the original investment at approximately US$220 million.

That was roughly C$300 million at the time.

The distinction matters because describing the original investment as US$300 million understates the potential return. If the initial US$220 million position is now worth US$11.6 billion, it represents an ending value of almost 53 times the original capital.

That would amount to a paper gain of more than 5,100 percent before considering dilution, secondary sales, additional purchases, currency movements, fees or taxes.

Ontario Teachers’ has also indicated that it added to its SpaceX position several times after the original transaction. Therefore, the pension plan’s complete exposure—and its potential eventual proceeds—could be larger than the estimated value attributed to the original 2019 shares.[3]

A First Investment With Enormous Consequences

The significance of the deal extends beyond its prospective financial return.

SpaceX was the first investment selected for the Teachers’ Innovation Platform, later renamed Teachers’ Venture Growth. The platform was created to invest in businesses using technology to overturn incumbent industries or establish new economic sectors.

SpaceX checked both boxes.

It attacked the economics of rocket launches by developing reusable boosters. Instead of discarding an enormously expensive rocket after a single mission, SpaceX demonstrated that key components could return to Earth, be refurbished and flown again.

That changed the cost structure of the launch industry.

SpaceX then used that advantage to deploy Starlink, a vast low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation providing broadband connectivity to consumers, businesses, ships, aircraft and governments.

Ontario Teachers’ was not merely investing in rockets. It was investing in an integrated infrastructure system combining launch vehicles, satellites, communications, defence applications and global data delivery.

Starlink Became the Commercial Engine

Starlink is now central to the valuation investors are assigning to SpaceX.

The satellite network transformed SpaceX from a company dependent mainly on launch contracts into a recurring-revenue communications business. Every additional satellite expands the network, while SpaceX’s control of its own rockets gives it a deployment advantage that traditional telecommunications companies cannot easily reproduce.

By early 2026, Starlink’s connectivity division was the only one of SpaceX’s three principal divisions reporting an operating profit for the first quarter. It produced approximately US$1.19 billion in operating profit during that period, even as heavy spending elsewhere pushed the consolidated company into a loss.[4]

That distinction is important.

The proposed SpaceX valuation is not based solely on selling rocket launches. It rests on the possibility that Starlink can become a global communications utility—a privately controlled layer of internet infrastructure operating above national borders.

For offshore investors, this represents a familiar principle: the most valuable infrastructure is often the infrastructure that connects jurisdictions.

From Rockets to Artificial Intelligence

SpaceX’s valuation story has expanded again following its acquisition of xAI.

The combination connects rockets, satellites, artificial intelligence, communications and computing infrastructure under one corporate structure. SpaceX has outlined ambitions involving solar-powered data centres in orbit and enormous quantities of AI computing capacity.

The concept is audacious. Space offers abundant solar energy and, in theory, opportunities to address some of the power, cooling and land constraints facing terrestrial AI data centres.

It is also highly speculative.

SpaceX’s AI division accounted for substantial losses and capital spending during the first quarter of 2026. Many of the technologies supporting the company’s long-term orbital-computing projections have not yet been commercially proven.[5]

Investors therefore appear to be assigning value not only to existing revenue, but to an ecosystem that could eventually include:

• Reusable space transportation;
• Starlink broadband and direct-to-mobile communications;
• Government and defence connectivity;
• Lunar and Mars infrastructure;
• Artificial-intelligence models and applications;
• Orbital computing and data centres.

That optionality helps explain how SpaceX moved from an approximately US$800 billion private-market valuation in late 2025 to a targeted public valuation of US$1.75 trillion only months later.[6]

The IPO Could Rewrite the Record Books

SpaceX is reportedly preparing to price its shares at US$135, targeting approximately US$75 billion in new capital and a valuation of US$1.75 trillion.

Trading is currently expected to begin on Nasdaq on June 12, 2026, provided the offering proceeds as planned.

At that valuation, SpaceX would immediately become one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. The offering could also become the largest initial public offering ever completed.

For Ontario Teachers’, however, an IPO does not necessarily mean an immediate exit.

Existing investors may be subject to lock-up restrictions, and pension executives have reportedly described SpaceX as a long-term holding rather than an asset that must be sold at the first available opportunity.

That could prove wise—or dangerous.

Public markets offer liquidity, but they also introduce daily volatility. A private valuation established during a financing round is one thing. Sustaining a near-US$2 trillion valuation under the scrutiny of quarterly earnings, public shareholders and securities regulators is another.

Not Every Innovation Investment Becomes SpaceX

There is also a warning inside this success story.

Venture investing produces highly uneven outcomes. A small number of extraordinary winners must often compensate for positions that stagnate or fail completely.

Ontario Teachers’ knows this firsthand. Its Teachers’ Venture Growth division previously lost its investment in the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

SpaceX demonstrates the other side of the equation: one exceptional investment can produce returns large enough to reshape the performance of an entire venture portfolio.

The lesson is not that pension funds should recklessly chase every fashionable technology company. It is that institutional investors require the governance, expertise and patience to identify genuine technological advantages before they become obvious to public markets.

Patient Capital Reaches Orbit

Ontario Teachers’ manages retirement assets for hundreds of thousands of working and retired educators. Its responsibility is not to speculate for headlines. Its responsibility is to earn durable, risk-adjusted returns over decades.

The SpaceX investment appears to be fulfilling that mandate spectacularly.

A roughly US$220 million decision made in 2019 may soon represent more than US$11 billion in market value. But the true achievement was not predicting an IPO price seven years in advance.

It was recognizing that reusable rockets and satellite broadband were becoming infrastructure—not science fiction.

The best offshore and institutional investments often share that characteristic. They appear unconventional at the beginning, illiquid during their development and obvious only after most of the value has already been created.

Ontario Teachers’ purchased its ticket before the countdown began.

Now, as SpaceX approaches the public market, that ticket may become one of the most valuable assets ever placed inside a Canadian pension portfolio.

Source notes

1. Ontario Teachers’ confirms that SpaceX was the inaugural investment of its Teachers’ Innovation Platform and that the strategy targeted companies disrupting established industries. The fund did not disclose the financial terms in 2019. (OTPP)
2. Recent reporting estimates that the original position could be worth as much as US$11.6 billion at SpaceX’s proposed US$1.75 trillion IPO valuation. (iPhone in Canada)
3. Teachers’ Venture Growth head Olivia Steedman said the pension fund added to its position several times after the initial investment. (iPhone in Canada)
4. Reuters reported that Starlink’s connectivity segment generated US$1.19 billion in first-quarter operating profit, while SpaceX recorded a consolidated operating loss. (Reuters)
5. SpaceX’s filing described ambitious orbital-data-centre plans, while revealing substantial losses and spending associated with its AI division. (Reuters)
6. SpaceX’s December 2025 secondary transaction valued it at US$800 billion; its current IPO target is approximately US$1.75 trillion. (Reuters)