The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has reaped billions from SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO), a striking irony given the demographic's typical ideological opposition to CEO Elon Musk. The pension fund's assets have surged by more than $10 billion thanks to an early investment in the space company.
Early Investment in SpaceX
In 2019, the OTPP announced it had purchased a stake in SpaceX through its Teachers' Innovation Platform, an initiative focused on equity investments in promising technology firms. At the time, OTPP representative Olivia Steedman stated, "SpaceX is the world's leading private space launch provider, and we are excited to work with the company in the next phase of its growth as it rolls out its Starlink satellite network."
The size of the stake was not publicly disclosed, but sources quoted by The Globe and Mail estimated it at US$220 million (approximately $300 million Canadian). At that time, SpaceX was valued at about US$33 billion, meaning the OTPP's stake represented roughly 0.6% of the company.
Soaring Valuation
Applying that same percentage to SpaceX's post-IPO valuation of US$1.75 trillion, the stake is now worth about US$11 billion ($15.5 billion Canadian). As of publication, SpaceX's value has increased further to US$2.6 trillion, pushing the book value of the OTPP's stake to as high as US$16 billion ($22.5 billion Canadian).
The OTPP is a defined benefit pension fund, meaning the windfall does not directly increase retirement benefits for its members. Payouts are calculated based on years of service, age at retirement, and top salary. However, the investment return equates to between $50,000 and $73,000 per member among the plan's 310,000 participants.
Elon Musk's Trillionaire Status
Last week's SpaceX IPO transformed Musk into history's first trillionaire, with his own stake valued at over $700 billion. This sparked public resentment in Canada, where Musk holds citizenship through his Saskatchewan-born mother, Maye. A Globe and Mail headline that read "SpaceX IPO makes Elon Musk the first trillionaire. Here's how to properly hate him" was later changed after international criticism. NDP MP Heather McPherson posted on X (a platform Musk owns), "Billionaires shouldn't exist. Trillionaires should be in jail. Time to stop the parasitic elites enriching themselves at everyone else's expense!"
