Recently, veteran Wall Street analyst Dan Ives, typically quite bullish on tech and artificial intelligence, weighed in on the stock. Here’s what he thinks a $17,000 investment in SpaceX could be worth over the next 12 months. <\/p>\n
Ives, formerly with Wedbush Securities, recently initiated coverage of SpaceX<\/a> with an outperform rating and a $190 price target, implying about 17.3% upside from current levels. Assuming this comes to fruition, a $16,500 investment could be worth close to $20,000 in one year’s time, the typical time horizon used by Wall Street analysts. <\/p>\n In his initiation note, Ives wrote that SpaceX is “one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market” and “well-positioned to become a major hyperscaler with its vertically integrated platform across connectivity, launch, and AI infrastructure.” <\/p>\n Ives views SpaceX’s low-Earth-orbit satellite internet service, Starlink, as the profit engine with a long runway ahead, given that the service still controls less than 1% of the global telecom and broadband market. <\/p>\n Thus far, Starlink has been the best financial performer of SpaceX’s three divisions, generating an operating profit of $4.4 billion and adjusted EBITDA<\/a> of nearly $7.2 billion in 2025. <\/p>\n Ives views the launch business as the engine that makes pretty much everything at the company possible, and is most excited about the AI division, which comprises the social media platform X, the digital AI intelligence platform Grok, multiple data centers, and a future potential terafab facility. <\/p>\n SpaceX has already signed massive data center deals with large AI players like Anthropic and Alphabet, which are expected to dramatically ramp revenue this year. <\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n While the deals can be canceled with just three months’ notice, Ives still believes SpaceX has an advantage over other data center players because it can build data centers faster and more cheaply than competitors. <\/p>\n Ives’ upside on SpaceX is lacking <\/p>\n In his initiation note, Ives acknowledged that the bull case for SpaceX largely depends on Starship, SpaceX’s fully reusable heavy-lift launch rocket that is not yet operational. <\/p>\n SpaceX needs Starship if it wants to build orbital data centers, which is likely already partly baked into the company’s valuation. Starship has conducted 12 test flights but has not yet worked as designed, according to Ives, and could also face regulatory pressure. <\/p>\n While Ives has issued a solid price target on SpaceX and a 17% return in one year is nothing to sniff at, I find his upside case lacking compared to his previous calls on other hyperscalers. <\/p>\n If you are a bull, it is a bit concerning that Ives doesn’t have a higher price target, given that he is considered one of the most bullish analysts on the Street for AI and tech. <\/p>\n Ives also points out how crucial Starship is to SpaceX’s thesis, and I agree. In its registration statement, the company said it could begin deploying orbital AI compute satellites as early as 2028. <\/p>\n But this seems like an incredibly fast timeline, especially given where Starship is. Obviously, what SpaceX and Founder Elon Musk are trying to accomplish is extraordinary, so long-term investors may not mind the longer timeline. <\/p>\n However, the fact that the company already trades at such a high valuation suggests that Starship’s success and orbital data centers are all but guaranteed, when they aren’t, making the risk-reward proposition on the stock unfavorable right now, in my opinion. <\/p>\n Should you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies right now? <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Space Exploration Technologies, consider this: <\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Space Exploration Technologies wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. <\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you’d have $418,761!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,195,804!* <\/p>\n Now, it’s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor’s total average return is 918% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 208% for the S&P 500.\u00a0Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. <\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a> <\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2026. <\/p>\n Bram Berkowitz<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/a> Image source: Getty Images. Ives offered less hype than expected on SpaceX <\/p>\n