[Edaily Marketin, Reporter Heo Ji-eun] It has been reported that domestic investment firms that made early-stage investments in Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX have reaped returns of at least ten times their initial investment following the company’s IPO. Domestic venture capital (VC) firms, including Mirae Asset—which made a large-scale group-level investment early on—as well as Aju IB Investment and Korea Investment Partners, recognized SpaceX’s potential and began investing in the company several years ago.

According to the financial investment industry on the 15th, SpaceX closed at $161.11 on the 12th (local time), the day of its Nasdaq listing, a 19.34% surge from its initial public offering (IPO) price. Based on the IPO price, the company’s valuation reached $1.77 trillion, setting a record for the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history. On its first day of trading, its market capitalization surpassed $2.1 trillion (approximately 2,900 trillion won).

In the domestic capital market, Mirae Asset Group is a major player that cannot be overlooked when it comes to SpaceX. Mirae Asset is recognized as the first and largest domestic institutional investor to invest in SpaceX. In 2022 and 2023, Mirae Asset bet 410 billion won on SpaceX at the group level. At the time, SpaceX’s enterprise value was reported to be around $127 billion (approximately 190 trillion won). Even when compared to its market capitalization on the listing date, it is estimated to have yielded a return of about 16.5 times. By simple calculation, this means the initial investment principal has grown into assets worth around 6 trillion won.

What is interesting is the investment structure of the Mirae Asset Group. While Mirae Asset Capital and Mirae Asset Management were reportedly the affiliates that identified the global deal and structured the project fund at the time, Mirae Asset Securities was actually responsible for providing the bulk of the capital. It is reported that Mirae Asset Securities backed the group-level investment as the primary limited partner (LP) by contributing a significant amount of its own proprietary capital (PI).

Although Mirae Asset faced controversy over “zero-share subscriptions” during this IPO process, it is reported that Mirae Asset Global Investments’ U.S. subsidiary successfully secured approximately 350 to 400 billion won worth of public offering shares through a private fund it established separately in its capacity as a local institutional investor. As a result, Mirae Asset’s cumulative investment in SpaceX has increased to a maximum of 810 billion won, and the total value of its SpaceX holdings is estimated at approximately 7.2 trillion won.

The foresight of Aju IB Investment, a first-generation domestic venture capital firm, is also drawing attention. Aju IB Investment made an investment in SpaceX in 2023 through its U.S. subsidiary, Solasta Ventures. At the time, Solasta—which was expanding its global deep tech and aerospace portfolio—reportedly secured a stake by establishing a project fund to purchase existing SpaceX shares. It is estimated that Aju IB Investment has also achieved a multiple of 14 to 15 times compared to the valuation in the secondary market at that time.

Korea Investment Partners, which handles the venture investment arm of Korea Investment & Finance Holdings, is also known to be a shareholder in SpaceX. Korea Investment Partners made an equity investment of approximately 14 billion won in 2025. At the time, SpaceX’s enterprise value was around $150 billion to $180 billion. Although this was a relatively late-stage investment, it is expected to have yielded a return of at least 10 times the initial investment. This is the result of major domestic VCs breaking into the secondary market for global deep-tech companies—which typically have high barriers to entry—using their unique networks and agility.

Among major non-financial manufacturing conglomerates, #Hanmi Semiconductor emerged as the last-minute entrant. Hanmi Semiconductor announced that it had acquired 50 billion won worth of SpaceX shares on the morning of the 12th, the day of SpaceX’s IPO. Having invested at the offering price, Hanmi Semiconductor saw the stock price surge by more than 19% on the first day of trading, resulting in a paper gain of 9.6 billion won in just one day.

An official from the financial investment industry explained, “With SpaceX’s successful Nasdaq debut, the rise in book value and equity value for domestic investment firms that entered early will begin in earnest.”