The barriers to creating a European SpaceX
Despite the headline, this FT special-report analysis is about European capital markets, not space companies. It argues that Europe's problem is less building a SpaceX-scale company than funding and keeping one. SpaceX's June IPO raised $85.7bn ($75bn plus a $10bn greenshoe). Only two European companies, Enel and Deutsche Telekom, are in Renaissance Capital's 20 largest IPOs ever, and both listed in the US. Of 147 European unicorns created in 2008–2021, 40 later moved their headquarters abroad, mostly to the US. PwC's Kat Kravtsov and Gulf Analytica's David Gibson-Moore blame fragmented markets and scarce late-stage capital. AFME's Gary Simmons says the EU should now apply its listing, prospectus and market-abuse reforms consistently. Counterweights: European equities beat the S&P 500 in 2025, investor inflows were the strongest in a decade, and Porsche (2022), Puig and CVC (2024) listed in Europe. Caveats: no space-sector funding, procurement or valuation data, and the underlying dataset for the relocation figure is not given.
Why it matters
The 40-of-147 unicorn relocation figure and the IPO gap go straight to the scale-up capital problem Dealroom tracks. It is also useful context for the EIB's €10bn scale-up fund. Without deeper late-stage and listing venues in Europe, the next breakout company is likely to redomicile or list in the US.
