Jun 12, 2026
While we adhere to strict editorial guidelines, partners on this page may provide us earnings.
A seven-year-old bet on Elon Musk might just blast off spectacularly.
Back in 2019, a Canadian-based teachers’ pension fund invested roughly $220 million into SpaceX when the rocket company was valued at around $35 billion. Now, with SpaceX reportedly targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation in its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), that stake could be worth as much as $11.6 billion.
Advertisement
The potential return? More than 5,100%.
The investor wasn’t a Silicon Valley venture capital firm or a billionaire hedge fund manager, but the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), a managed retirement savings plan for 346,000 public school teachers.
The potential windfall highlights just how much wealth can be created when an investor gets in long before a company ever reaches the public market. And it raises a question for everyday investors — where can you find the next wave of growth once a company like SpaceX has already become a household name?
How investments can grow 10x or 50x
Few investments generate life-changing returns. Even fewer grow more than 50-fold in less than a decade — that’s a feat achieved by less than 0.1% of listed U.S. stocks over any rolling ten-year window, according to analysis done by Baillie Gifford of Morgan Stanley on market ‘skewness’.
The gains have already helped boost the OTPP fund’s venture-growth portfolio. In March, the organization reported a 30% surge in that segment during 2025, driven largely by its investment in SpaceX.
In 2019, SpaceX was still a privately held aerospace company working to expand its launch business and roll out its Starlink satellite network. Investors who bought in early were betting on a vision that had yet to fully materialize.
Finding opportunities at that stage is notoriously difficult. By the time most investors hear about a company, much of the explosive growth has already happened.
That doesn’t mean you’re out of options. The key to unlocking your next windfall is developing a repeatable process to find those promising businesses before they become household names. However, doing this alone is essentially a full-time job. It can be hard to find the time to do this research between work and family.
Advertisement
This is when a little help might be appropriate.
One option is to work with a financial advisor or portfolio manager whose expertise can help identify ground-floor investing opportunities. Another option is to invest in a stock analysis platform, such as The Motley Fool.
A subscription to The Motley Fool (TMF), offers access to expert research and recommendations backed by analysts. This insight helps investors uncover long-term opportunities without spending hours digging through financial statements and earnings reports.
Right now, new TMF subscribers can get unlimited access to Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada insights for just $1.90 per week. Insight and research from the Motley Fool can help cut through the noise and reduce the guesswork helping you make smarter investing decisions in just five minutes.
Must Read
- Warren Buffett used these 4 solid, repeatable money rules to turn $9,800 into a $150B fortune. Here’s how to apply them to your own life
- Stop the leak: 5 costs Canadians (still) overpay for every single month. How many are sabotaging your 2026 budget?
- Three in four Canadians say their insurance premiums have increased in the last two years. Compare 20+ quotes on Rates.ca and save up to 20% when you bundle home and auto
Join 19,000+ readers and get Money.ca’s best stories and exclusive interviews first — clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.
Now any investor can add IPO investments to their portfolio
In reality, most long-term wealth isn’t built through a single moonshot — or a single stock or IPO. Though we all want to believe our next investment is the one that’ll make a life-changing amount of money, even large institutional investors with extensive research teams experience setbacks along the way.
For investors interested in exploring IPO investments, check out Wealthsimple. This Toronto fintech opened access to IPO offerings in late May for any client with a trading account. With this latest offering, retail investors can now request shares of select companies at their offering price, as they become available.
“Big institutions get to buy in at the offering price, while everyday investors are excluded,” Swapnil Parikh, Wealthsimple’s vice-president of product, said in a statement.
Advertisement
Trusted by more than three million Canadians, Wealthsimple manages over $100 billion in assets and provides $1 million in eligible coverage through the CDIC for chequing accounts and CIPF for investments. New Wealthsimple clients can get a $25 bonus when you open your first account and fund at least $1 within 30 days. Visit Wealthsimple for up-to-date terms and conditions.
Don’t gamble with your investment savings
SpaceX may prove to be one of the most successful investments in the OTPP investment history but other bets didn’t work out nearly as well. After investing $95 million in FTX, OTPP eventually wrote the entire position down to zero following the crypto exchange’s collapse.
Like any investor, one investment decision may generate billions for OTPP, while another was a complete loss.
The success — and failure — of OTPP funds illustrates the importance of consistency and diversification. A portfolio spread across a couple of strong core investments can reduce the impact of any single mistake while still allowing investors to participate in long-term market growth.
For investors who struggle to stay consistent, consider using a robo-advisor. With custom-built and professionally-managed portfolios, robo-advisors help investors put money to work automatically while tailoring the portfolio to your risk tolerance.
One option is through Wealthsimple portfolios. These pre-built portfolios offer an easy, hands-off way to grow your money that’s tailored to your retirement goals, risk tolerance and investment horizon. Expert-managed and designed to weather market ups and downs, Wealthsimple takes care of the heavy lifting: Automatic contributions, dividend reinvesting and smart rebalancing keep your investments on track. You can invest through RRSPs, TFSAs or non-registered accounts, all from an intuitive online dashboard or their easy-to-use mobile app.
Advertisement
Another option is Questrade’s Questwealth portfolios. These are perfect for investors who want a hands-off, low-cost investing solution. Using Questwealth portfolios, you’ll get matched to one of five ETF-based portfolios — Aggressive, Growth, Balanced, Income or Conservative — depending on your risk tolerance and financial goals.
Unlike the usual “set-it-and-forget-it” robo platforms that just track the market with passive index funds, Questwealth actually uses actively managed ETFs. In theory, this gives you a better shot at long-term gains, while still keeping fees low. Plus, Questwealth is one of Canada's cheapest robo-advisors, with all-in fees typically ranging from about 0.37% to 0.47% annually depending on your account size and portfolio selection — a fraction of the roughly 2% fee many Canadians still pay through traditional mutual funds.
Private markets aren’t the only way to access alternative assets
Aside from new opportunities to invest in IPOs, most investors can’t buy into a company like SpaceX years before its IPO. But that doesn’t mean alternative investments are entirely out of reach.
Real estate, for example, has historically played an important role in diversified portfolios, generating income through rent while offering the potential for long-term appreciation. PWL Capital even went so far as to name it the “best investment in history.”
And if you aren’t ready to jump into homeownership (financially or otherwise), there are ways to add real estate exposure to your investment portfolio without the headaches of being a landlord. TSX-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) let you invest in income-producing properties while collecting regular distributions — with yields of 5% or higher common among leading REITs. Since REITs trade like stocks, you can add these investments to a self-directed account, including a TFSA, RRSP or a non-registered account. For instance, a CIBC Investor’s Edge online or mobile app lets you build a diversified portfolio, enjoy no maintenance fees on accounts of $10,000 or more, and get 200 free trades with promo code EDGE2026. Plus, trade more than 180 select ETFs commission-free. Terms and conditions apply. Offer ends September 30, 2026.
SpaceX offers insight into the rise (and potential fall) of higher-risk investments
Not everyone is convinced SpaceX deserves its reported valuation.
Analysts at Morningstar have suggested the company may be worth substantially less than its IPO target, highlighting the uncertainty that often surrounds fast-growing companies. Morningstar analysts peg SpaceX's valuation at $63 a share, a “53% discount” on the launch price of $135 per share, per CNBC.
That’s not unusual. Throughout market history, periods of excitement around emerging technologies have often been accompanied by debates about whether investors are overly optimistic.
For now, investors can take the experience of the teacher’s pension fund as a signal: If you’re willing to do the work and take the risk, the reward can be great. However, for investors more interested in capturing consistent, steady returns, a long-term investment plan combined with a low-cost trading platform is the easiest and most effective tool for achieving financial goals.
You May Also Like
- This 7-step plan from Dave Ramsey is designed to help you ditch debt, save more and build wealth — here’s how it works
- Prioritize these 4 critical investments and watch your net worth skyrocket
- Focus on these 3 ‘magic numbers’ to become a millionaire — and only on these numbers. How do you stack up?
- Millionaires under 43 are reshaping investing — just 25% of their portfolios are in stocks. Here’s where their money is going
Thomas Kent is a senior staff writer at Moneywise covering personal finance, markets and economic trends. He specializes in translating complex financial topics into clear, actionable insights for everyday readers.
