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SpaceX Investments Now Dominate The 10 Best VC Checks Of All Time

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12.06.2026

SpaceX’s IPO is the largest in history, and the rocket company’s venture capital backers including Founders Fund and Valor Equity Partners have collectively minted hundreds of billions in gains. Where do these checks sit among the all-time best venture capital investments?

There are multiple ways to define the most lucrative VC outcomes. You could look at the multiple, or total return on investment — where Benchmark’s landmark 90,000% return from its 1997 bet on Ebay remains a standout. In dollar terms though, Benchmark’s stake was worth $4 billion at the time of the auction site’s 1999 float ($8.1 billion in today’s dollars). When ranking investment deals that are decades apart, it is easiest to look at the inflated-adjusted dollar value of the stake at the time of the IPO. On that basis Benchmark’s signature investment, widely considered a banner one for venture capital funds, doesn’t crack the top ten. Now, that’s dominated by SpaceX.

Returns from the rocket maker’s historic IPO are only outmatched by investments from institutions like SoftBank. The ten exits listed below now overshadow what have long been considered some of the all-time greatest startup investments, like the billions of dollars generated by Andreessen Horowitz’s bet on Coinbase, Benchmark on Uber, Accel on UiPath or Index on Robinhood.

The scale of the returns from SpaceX, which listed at $135 per share today, mean that even big winners, like A16z’s $10 billion stake or Coatue’s $6 billion holding, don’t rank. Then there are other investors, like Luke Nosek’s Gigafund, or Alex Tamas’ Vy Capital, who were major and early SpaceX investors but their holdings are not yet known. Other unknowns include when........

© Forbes