Editor’s note: “Space Stocks Will Mint Millionaires Upon Blastoff” was previously published in October 2022. It has since been updated to include the most relevant information available.
Every decade, an emerging next-gen technology appears unexpectedly. It changes the world forever and mints millionaires out of its early backers.
In the 1990s, it was the computer. PC stocks like Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), and HP (HPQ) soared. Microsoft stock even popped almost 10,000%, turning every $10,000 investment into a million-dollar payday.
In the 2000s, it was the mobile phone. Smartphone makers like Apple (AAPL) soared 1,000% in that decade. And in the 2010s, it was the cloud. Cloud service providers like Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) soared thousands of percent from 2010 to ‘19.
Importantly, these technological breakthroughs and massive stock price surges happened every decade, regardless of the surrounding circumstances.
In the 1990s, we had an oil price shock, a recession, and financial crises in Asia and Russia. Yet through it all, Microsoft stock still rallied 10,000% as the computer redefined the world.
In the 2000s, we had the dot-com crash, record-high oil prices, and the 2008 financial crisis. Yet through it all, Apple stock popped more than 1,000% as the smartphone redefined the world.
In the 2010s, we had a debt crisis in Europe, a financial crisis in China, and one of the worst commodities bear markets in history. And Netflix stock still soared more than 4,000% as the cloud redefined the world.
In other words, these decade-defining technological megatrends – and the winners they produce – are unstoppable.
So… the real question for the 2020s isn’t whether inflation stays hot, if the Fed hikes or cuts rates, or if we enter or avoid a recession…
Instead, it’s this. What will be the decade-defining, unstoppable technological megatrend of the 2020s?
The answer? Space. And that means it’s time to buy space stocks.
Creating the Space Economy
Remember the summer of 2021, when all those billionaires flew into space? The media started talking about how it was the beginning of a new world, where we would all replace Disneyland trips with 10-minute joyrides into the stratosphere.
Yeah. That’s not what I’m talking about when I say that space will be the defining technological megatrend of the 2020s.
Instead, I’m talking about the creation of a brand-new, multi-trillion-dollar Space Economy. We’ll make things, generate power, mine materials, and produce data in space. And in sum, we’ll create a ton of real-world value leveraging space’s unique characteristics. (Think zero gravity, unlimited sunlight, infinite room, ample resources, etc.).
Now, to their credit, the creation of that Space Economy does start with those billionaires’ trips into space.
See; to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, those flights were bragging rights. But to the thousands of rocket scientists and engineers across the world, those flights were proof that jet propulsion technology has progressed to the point where we can safely, reliably, and cost-effectively fly non-trained professionals into space whenever we want.
In the 1960s, we were flying one highly-trained astronaut on one expensive rocket ship into space once every few months. Now we’re launching non-astronaut businessmen on multiple rocket ships on a daily basis.
That’s a big deal.
You can’t colonize and commercialize space – and create an entirely new economy – without safe, reliable transportation.
Well, folks, we’re finally at that point. For the first time in history, space is becoming accessible.
With that enormous hurdle out of the way, we can now begin colonizing and commercializing space. And that’s an effort we believe will yield multiple trillion-dollar economic opportunities.
The Trillion-Dollar Opportunity in Space Stocks
At this point, I’m sure some of you are saying: OK… so what?
What sorts of businesses can we build in space that we cannot build on Earth? Is there actually any long-standing economic opportunity in this industry?
Great questions. And the answers all revolve around the idea that space actually presents many untapped – and quite large – economic opportunities.
The first – and the one that, thanks to Branson and Bezos, everyone immediately thinks of – is space tourism.
We do believe there will exist an enormous market for space “shuttle” companies to fly people into outer space on Disneyland-like joy rides. At first, such rides will be prohibitively expensive. But as rocket launches follow the cost-decline curve shown above and space tourism companies unlock economies of scale, these space rides will become increasingly cheaper.
By the 2030s, we believe about a dozen companies will be operating thousands of shuttles. Each will be flying a handful of folks into space on quasi-affordable 10- to 15-minute trips several times a week. Net-net, we think millions of people will be flying into space every single year by the 2030s.
And soon enough, they won’t just be flying into space. They’ll be staying in space hotels, renting space apartments, and more. While these ancillary tourism markets are still several years away, we do believe that within the coming years, some folks will have the ability to stay in a Hilton hotel in space.
We view this broader category of space tourism as a multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry in the making. And it all starts in just a few months, with Virgin Galactic (SPCE) slated to start commercial operations of its space tourism business in the first quarter of 2023.
Emerging Space-Based Industries
While exciting, tourism is likely to be one of the smaller industries in the Space Economy. The other space industries we see emerging in the 2020s include:
- Geospatial imagery. Already today, hundreds of satellites are in orbit around the Earth, capturing dynamic and high-resolution pictures of the Earth’s surface. These images can be used for any variety of end-use applications, including for national defense, asset tracking, crop monitoring, etc.
- Weather forecasting. Some satellites will have the ability to collect GPS radio occultation data. This is radio signal data that leverages space-based atmospheric density readings to improve weather forecasting.
- Asteroid mining. Asteroids contain many nonrenewable resources, including water and rare minerals. These could prove very useful to mine and transport back to Earth.
- Manufacturing. The lack of gravity makes it much easier to manufacture certain objects, like satellites, in space than on Earth. Therefore, we believe in-orbit satellite manufacturing represents a huge economic opportunity in the coming years.
- Renewable energy generation. Space is a lot closer to the sun than Earth. It also never has clouds. Therefore, there’s huge potential to generate enormous amounts of renewable solar energy there and transport it back to Earth. We believe outer-space solar energy generation could solve the world’s climate crisis.
- Connectivity. Companies like SpaceX are hard at work finessing and launching satellite tech to provide internet connectivity all across the globe – even above it. Indeed, SpaceX recently launched a service to provide 350 Mbps internet on planes using its Starlink satellites.
Like space itself, the economic opportunity there is infinite. In numbers, analysts at Morgan Stanley (MS) – who, for what it’s worth, were early bulls to the EV Revolution – expect the Space Economy to measure over $1 trillion by 2040.
It’s no wonder the CEO of rocket startup Astra (ASTR) said that “the next generation of billionaires will be made in space.”
We agree entirely with that statement – and we’ve found the top millionaire-making space stocks for you to buy today.
The Final Word on Space Stocks
Every decade, a next-gen technological megatrend emerges out of nowhere and changes the world forever. Along the way, it turns its early investors into millionaires many times over.
The PC in the 1990s. The smartphone in the 2000s. The cloud in the 2010s. And now space in the 2020s.
So… my two cents here is simple.
Forget inflation. Forget the war in Europe, recession fears, and plunging stock prices. Dedicate all your energy to identifying the best up-and-coming space stocks that could make millionaires out of their early investors, regardless of how the rest of the economy develops.
Fortunately, we’ve done the leg work for you and have found some top space stocks for you to buy today.
The stocks we’re talking about aren’t companies that are still trying to figure out how to reach space and/or produce revenues – which is the state of most space startups these days.
Rather, the space stocks we’re talking about are companies that have already reached space multiple times and have a clear pathway to huge revenue generation and profit production.
These stocks represent the best-in-class of the space industry.
Could they be the next Microsoft? Apple? Netflix?
Maybe. Time will tell.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.