Gina Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, has invested a reported $1bn in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, marking one of her largest US shareholdings. The investment was made after SpaceX began trading on sharemarkets on Friday, with Rinehart describing it as a “significant” allocation.
In a statement, Rinehart praised Musk’s achievements, saying he had “done what very few people in history have done – he has not just imagined the future, he has built companies capable of delivering it”. She cited SpaceX’s early rocket efforts and Starlink satellite network, but expressed particular excitement about its AI prospects.
Hancock Prospecting’s chief executive, Garry Korte, said Rinehart had met Musk several times and that the company used the Grok AI platform. He added that Hancock would “look forward” to potentially working with SpaceX as a supplier of critical minerals for its advanced technology infrastructure.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Rinehart bought over US$1bn (A$1.4bn) worth of the US$2.1tn (A$2.97tn) company. If accurate, this would dwarf her biggest US shareholdings of US$0.7bn each in MP Materials and an Invesco Nasdaq index fund. Hancock Prospecting declined to confirm the exact size of the investment.
