SpaceX went public today but Indians couldn't buy stock in IPO! Here's why

Elon Musk's SpaceX rang the Nasdaq opening bell as SPCX on June 12, 2026, in the largest IPO in history, raising over $30 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.8 trillion. For Indian retail investors who have spent years following SpaceX's rocket launches and Starlink rollout, the listing felt like a once-in-a-generation opportunity. There is just one problem: most of them cannot buy the stock through the IPO itself.

Why the IPO Process Excludes Foreign Retail Investors

In India, IPOs use the ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amount) system, which allows any resident retail investor with a bank account and demat account to apply directly for shares in a company going public. The United States has no equivalent open process for foreign retail participants. US IPO book-building is run through underwriting banks that allocate shares to clients, overwhelmingly institutional investors and the brokerage's existing retail customer base within the US. An Indian investor sitting in Mumbai or Bengaluru, without a US brokerage account active before the IPO closed, simply had no mechanism to place a primary order for SPCX shares.

What Indian Investors Can Do Now

The good news is that the story does not end at the IPO. Now that SpaceX has begun trading on Nasdaq, Indian residents have legitimate, regulator-approved routes to buy SPCX shares, just not at the $135 IPO price. Under the Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), resident Indians can remit up to $250,000 per financial year to invest in foreign assets, including listed US stocks. Several Indian and international platforms offer access to US markets specifically for this purpose, allowing investors to buy SPCX shares once they begin trading on the open market.

The Catch: Price and Timing

The catch is straightforward, buying after listing means buying at whatever price the market sets, not the IPO price. Given the frenzy around SpaceX's debut, with retail demand alone reportedly exceeding $100 billion against a much smaller available allocation, SPCX shares could open well above $135 and remain volatile in early trading. Indian investors using LRS routes will also need to account for currency conversion costs, foreign transaction fees charged by brokerages, and applicable tax implications on foreign capital gains under Indian tax law.

The Bigger Picture for Indian Markets

SpaceX's listing arrives at a moment when Indian investor appetite for US tech and frontier-technology stocks has been steadily growing, driven by familiarity with companies like Tesla, Nvidia, and now SpaceX through global media coverage. While India's own space sector, anchored by ISRO and a growing crop of private space startups, has seen increased government attention and funding, none of India's space companies are anywhere near a listing of this scale. For now, Indian investors wanting exposure to the commercial space economy will have to look abroad, navigate the LRS route, and accept that they are buying in after the most explosive part of the story has already played out on Wall Street.