By now you’ve heard the news: SpaceX will conduct an initial public offering in 2026 — at a $1.5 trillion valuation. CEO Elon Musk personally owns 42% of the company. Added to the $484 billion Musk is already worth, a $1.5 trillion valuation on SpaceX would officially make him the world’s first trillionaire.
wow
Despite all the talk about how people don’t like billionaires these days, investors seem more than happy to give Musk a 1,000x on that goal. They are lining up to participate in SpaceX’s IPO, unable to resist the prospect of owning a piece of the world’s largest and most successful space company.
I personally think it’s a bad idea. As we argued last month, SpaceX is likely to trade at a sky-high price of nearly 70 times annual sales, which we called “a valuation that’s very hard to defend.”
But what if you could buy a stock that looked a lot like SpaceX and cost 1,500 times less?
Image source: Getty Images.
No, I’m not talking about US space companies The rocket lab(NASDAQ:RKLB) or Blue Origin today. (Although Rocket Lab has it was a pretty great investment, and I happen to think Blue Origin might be one too.)
Instead, today I want to talk about LandSpace, arguably China’s best private space company and the closest thing China has to its own version of SpaceX.
China has a plethora of space start-ups with out-of-this-world names such as iSpace, Galactic Energy and Space Pioneer. However, LandSpace probably leads the pack in China.
Founded in 2015, LandSpace is 13 years younger than SpaceX and, apples to apples, is probably over a decade behind SpaceX in terms of development. Still, I’d say it’s the best China has right now.
Best known for its liquid oxygen and liquid methane fueled Zhuque‑2 rocket, LandSpace first reached orbit in 2013; that rocket has flown four times since then. LandSpace’s latest project is the Zhuque-3 rocket. Not an original name — not an original idea. Modeled after SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9, the Zhuque-3 reached orbit in December 2025, but crashed during the landing attempt (as did the first few reusable Falcon 9s).
In 2026, LandSpace aims to perfect the process. Twelve launches are planned this year and perhaps as many as 12 landing attempts. If the company’s performance is similar to that of SpaceX, at least one of these should succeed.
And the odds favor LandSpace’s performance very much like SpaceX. Consider the similarities:
Like the Falcon 9, the Zhuque-3 is a two-stage rocket that has nine first-stage engines for launch and fins and legs for landing. Like the Falcon 9, it is designed to be reusable 20 or more times before needing to be replaced. Zhuque-3’s payload is similar to Falcon 9’s, if slightly lighter — 8 to 12 tons of payload in low Earth orbit. And like SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, it is constructed of stainless steel for improved structural integrity and thermal performance during reentry.
If all goes well and LandSpace manages to land and fly a Zhuque-3 in 2026, it will delay SpaceX’s first landing of a Falcon 9 by just 11 years — not a bad feat for a company. 13 years younger than SpaceX. In fact, it will prove without a doubt that LandSpace achieves its mentor.
Of course, one would hope that LandSpace will be able to catch up a bit Faster. After all, SpaceX has already done all of this before, already proven that reuse works, and already made all the mistakes (which LandSpace can now avoid) and achieved all the successes (which LandSpace can now emulate).
LandSpace also still has a long way to go if it wants to get to where SpaceX is today, racking up more than 150 successful Falcon 9 launches annually — while juggling development of lunar landers, testing a fleet of giant starships and building the largest broadband internet constellations. Still, using SpaceX as a roadmap gives space investors a good idea of where LandSpace will go, even if it takes another decade to get there.
If you’re interested in investing in the LandSpace IPO, here’s what we know about it:
The Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market has approved LandSpace for a public listing in early 2026. The company is not yet profitable, reporting revenue of just 36.4 million yuan ($5 million) in the first half of 2025 and losses of ($87.6 million). Additionally, revenue increased eightfold in the first half of 2025 compared to the first half of 2024. The company is targeting a $1 billion IPO valuation.
LandSpace may not be as good a rocket company as SpaceX. It may be unprofitable and a decade behind the American space giant in terms of technology — but hey, at least LandSpace costs 1,500 times less!
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Rich Smith holds positions in Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Forget the SpaceX IPO in 2026. This space stock is 1500 times cheaper. was originally published by The Motley Fool
