Companies like SpaceX don’t need IPOs to fund growth, says fund manager Kevin Moss
SpaceX’s $60 billion Cursor deal shows how much value is captured before public investors ever get a chance.
The SpaceX acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion landed just four days after the company completed what is now the largest IPO in history. For most investors watching from the public markets, it was a reminder of how much they had already missed.
Kevin Moss, co-founder and portfolio manager of the Private Shares Fund, saw it differently. His fund held SpaceX as its largest position (at 23.8% of the portfolio) before the company ever listed on the Nasdaq. In his view, investors who wanted exposure to Cursor’s explosive growth had a better path: own SpaceX while it was still private.
“If you only invest through public markets, you may be showing up after a lot of the growth has already happened,” Moss told InvestmentNews.
The structural shift keeping companies private
The Private Shares Fund focuses on late-stage private companies, and Moss has watched the mechanics of that market evolve substantially over the past decade. The reasons companies are staying private longer are no longer primarily cultural; they are structural.
“There’s far more private capital available than ever, so companies don’t need the public markets to fund growth,” he said. “Regulation played a role too — the JOBS Act in 2012 raised the shareholder threshold that used to force companies to go public, so they can stay private much longer without tripping into public reporting.”
The result is a growing gap between where value is created and where most advisors’ clients are positioned to capture it.
“Waiting for the IPO could make you miss some potentially compelling growth opportunities,” Moss said. “If you want exposure to these companies, you increasingly have to access them while they’re private.”
What the Cursor deal says about where growth is going
SpaceX announced the acquisition of Cursor for $60 billion in an all-stock transaction just days after its historic public debut. Cursor had hit $4 billion in annualized revenue and was used by 67% of the Fortune 500, generating 150 million lines of enterprise code per day.
For Moss, the deal illustrated two things simultaneously: the scale of value creation happening inside private companies, and the speed at which that value can be captured or redirected before public investors participate.
“SpaceX folded xAI into its operations and acquiring Cursor provides software tools and talent as it operates in the evolving AI landscape,” he said. “It also demonstrates SpaceX using its newly public stock as acquisition currency to expand.”
Cursor’s most recent private funding round — a $2.3 billion Series D closed in November 2025 — had valued the company at $29.3 billion. By the time of the acquisition, that figure had more than doubled. Investors in the public markets had no access to that compounding.
“Established private companies can pursue strategic growth through M&A alongside public listing paths,” Moss said. “And holding late-stage market leaders — such as SpaceX — early allows you to potentially benefit from those moves as they happen.”
How advisors should think about client suitability
Private market allocations are not appropriate for every client, and Moss is careful to draw that line clearly. The trade-offs — reduced liquidity, less frequent pricing, and lower transparency than publicly traded securities — require a considered fit assessment.
“Fit comes down to time horizon and liquidity needs,” he said. “These allocations are typically evaluated for clients with longer time horizons, distinct risk profiles, and lower immediate liquidity needs.”
Private companies now represent a meaningful and growing share of where economic value is being built. A strategy that operates entirely in public markets, Moss argues, may be structurally incomplete.
“Private companies now represent a large and growing share of value creation, so a strategy that’s entirely public may potentially miss a big part of the opportunity set,” he said. “Determining an appropriate allocation for any individual client requires a direct consultation between the client and their financial advisor to evaluate their specific financial situation, investment objectives, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs.”
The pipeline of IPO-ready private companies continues to grow, but Moss does not expect that to resolve the fundamental dynamic. Some will list. Others will be acquired. Some will stay private indefinitely. For advisors looking at private equity and late-stage private growth, the question is less about timing the IPO window and more about whether clients are positioned before it opens.
“The trend is indicating toward staying private longer, and more of these companies exiting through acquisition rather than a traditional IPO,” Moss said. “A public listing is just one of the potential outcomes — sometimes the least attractive.”
