HAWTHORNE, Calif. — Australia's richest person has placed a major bet on Elon Musk's rocket company. Gina Rinehart, the 72-year-old chairwoman of mining giant Hancock Prospecting, revealed this week a "significant investment" in SpaceX worth more than $1 billion — her largest holding outside iron ore, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The timing has already paid off. SpaceX shares jumped nearly 20% to close at $192.50 on Monday after opening at $150 the previous Friday, handing Rinehart's stake an estimated $425 million paper gain in just two trading sessions. The surge is the latest windfall for early backers, echoing the gains that turned thousands of SpaceX employees into millionaires when the stock began trading.
A Vote of Confidence in Musk
Rinehart, who is worth roughly $36.9 billion, framed the move as a long-term conviction bet. "We see SpaceX as a rare business, led by a truly exceptional person, technically exceptional and operating in sectors that are crucial and with long-term potential," she said in a statement.
She singled out the breadth of the company's engineering. "SpaceX stands apart as the only company globally building integrated hardware and software across its core segments of space, connectivity and AI," she added — citing SpaceX milestones including being the first private company to dock at the International Space Station and the first to deploy a large-scale broadband constellation in low Earth orbit.
Her praise for the founder was unreserved: "Elon has done what very few people in history have done — he has not just imagined the future, he has built companies capable of delivering it, and helped to keep American technology at the forefront."
