Morgan Stanley invests heavily in AST SpaceMobile
August 17, 2026

By Chris Forrester



Elon Musk’s personal stake in SpaceX includes 6.4 billion shares equal to a 48 per cent stake in the business, and worth some $908 billion (€753bn) at current prices.

However, it has emerged that investment bank Morgan Stanley is backing SpaceX’s Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) rival, in the form of would be satellite cellular provider AST SpaceMobile (AST). Morgan Stanley has acquired more than 4 million shares in AST.


The bank has more than doubled its stake in AST during Q2 and its holding is now worth some $650 million.

Meanwhile, analysts at CitiBank have reviewed their guidance on SpaceX. The bank is maintaining its $200 per share price expectations, but raised its longer-term valuation at more than $900 per share based on scaling space infrastructure and overall growth in the sector.

Citi says its initial $200 target represents “a milestone along the path to $900+ which becomes realistic assuming key engineering achievements are demonstrated at scale.” A successful deployment of SpaceX’s Starship would establish the most affordable and scalable route to unlocking the economic potential of space, giving SpaceX access to trillion-dollar markets that “no other company can realistically tap into,” Citi analysts wrote.