By Gianluca Lo Nostro
May 21 (Reuters) – European space stocks surged on Thursday after Elon Musk’s SpaceX filed for a stock market listing, lifting sentiment across the sector.
If completed at the reported valuation, SpaceX’s listing would be the first U.S. market debut above $1 trillion and would place the rocket and satellite-internet company among the world’s most valuable publicly traded groups.
Shares in French satellite operator Eutelsat were up 16% by 0942 GMT, while German satellite maker OHB soared 12% and Luxembourg’s SES rose 2.3%.
Eutelsat and OHB have respectively increased their market value by 26% and 33% this week. SpaceX’s hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) filing on Wednesday is driving positive sentiment for European satellite stocks, one trader told Reuters.
The rally has stretched beyond Europe. U.S.-listed space names have also climbed sharply this year, with Intuitive Machines rising 88%, Rocket Lab up 77%, Firefly Aerospace up 85% and Iridium Communications up 155% since January 1.
Jan Frederik Slijkerman, analyst at ING, said sentiment towards European satellite operators had improved after a weak 2025, when investors worried that new low-Earth orbit constellations would disrupt the market and create overcapacity, particularly for geostationary assets.
“More recently, the narrative has shifted,” he said, though he declined to comment on SpaceX in particular.
In its filing, SpaceX laid out a total addressable market opportunity of $28.5 trillion, of which $1.6 trillion was represented by its satellite internet business Starlink.
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Danilo Masoni; Additional reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
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