As SpaceX shares have begun trading on the US stock exchange, it can be tempting to see it as an overnight success – another disruptor from founder Elon Musk.
But the reality is that it has come to life only through years of meticulous research, carefully placed investment, and endless hours of patience. In the same way, it’s important to understand fully what to expect when you make a business investment of your own.
In today’s market, it can be easy for businesses to have FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to massive trends. But throwing capital at the next big thing simply to look innovative can often be an expensive gamble.
Read on to find out more about how buying into hype without carrying out due diligence could dilute your core proposition.
A long-term strategy can effectively embed a value proposition
The most successful businesses are built on long-term strategy and stability, not on short-term speculation. But when a big success story such as SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) hits the headlines, it can be easy to think this is a quick win.
In case you missed it: on 12 June 2026, Elon Musk’s SpaceX (trading as SPCX) made history, pricing at $135 per share. This briefly peaked at $225 per share, taking the company’s valuation past $2.1 trillion.
All of which was trumpeted loudly in the international press, as this made Musk the world’s first trillionaire. However, Musk himself has described the reality behind the publicity as a “24-year grind”.
SpaceX has teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and saw three launch failures of its Falcon 1 rocket launcher before the fourth was successful.
Hype surrounding the initial IPO has now cooled, and SPCX has been restored to its early price, as the excitement from the markets has quietened. According to the BBC, the price has since dropped further, with shares selling at $132.62 on 15 July. Despite this volatility – to be expected with any launch so hotly covered by the press – SpaceX has established itself as a major player in the market.
The takeaway here is not that Elon Musk has become a trillionaire. Rather, that SpaceX spent two decades absorbing losses, navigating failures, and patiently playing the long game.
3 moments in history where tech hype outweighed results
For investors and business owners, SpaceX is a good parallel from which to learn about the power of long-term diligence over and above a short-term scramble.
The temptation for SpaceX could have been to jump straight in and buy ready-made components to help them quickly lift off. However, Elon Musk adopted a “first principles” approach, breaking down the supply chain and rebuilding it from scratch to ensure it was perfectly fit for purpose.
History tells us that the “next big thing” can very quickly fall flat. While SpaceX has undeniably received much hype and media attention, it has the strategy and pedigree to support the noise. However, the following events are good examples of expensive hype without the all-important associated strategy to make it stick.
The dotcom revolution
This explosion in internet-based startups in the late 1990s saw tech valuations rocket to almost unbelievable (and clearly unsustainable) heights.
In what became something of a frenzy, investors pumped money into the “dotcom domains” almost arbitrarily. The usual fundamentals such as a clear business plan or forecast revenue streams were overlooked in the pursuit of the promise of web traffic driving growth.
According to the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI), the Nasdaq rose by 582% between 1995 and March 2000. However, the bubble burst between 2000 and 2002, and hundreds of companies went bankrupt.
The dotcom revolution was a valuable – albeit expensive – lesson to investors that feverish speculation is unlikely to result in profitable returns.
Big data
In 2011, the McKinsey Global Institute published a report called “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity”. This led to a mass rush from companies seeking to build huge data “lakes” – which went far beyond the realms of traditional databases – in a bid to remain ultra-competitive.
However, much of the expenditure on infrastructure proved to be misguided, with huge amounts of data remaining unanalysed, unusable, and unstructured.
Then, with the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, many firms found they were facing compliance issues for storing data which many of them hadn’t realised they still had.
The “metaverse”
Facebook’s much-hyped rebrand to Meta in 2021 is another example of corporate FOMO, leading to companies buying large swathes of virtual real estate. This stampede was driven by ideas that the metaverse would become host to socialising, meeting, and shopping, using digital avatars.
However, this hype failed to translate into reality, and companies who had bought into it had invested millions in digital PR stunts that had not delivered. Indeed, after heavy losses in its virtual reality division, Meta is significantly scaling back on its metaverse operations.
The lesson: Do your due diligence
SpaceX is a great example of media noise with the strategy and statistics to back up the hype. However, the above examples show that hype that’s just hot air will rarely deliver.
Before leaping straight into investing in a new trend, ask yourself why you’re doing so. For example, if you’re buying into new technology, is it to show off to your customers and have a fancy badge on your home page? Or is there a real business case that will make your operations more efficient, support your workforce, or improve outcomes for your customers?
A new feature or system in your organisation will take time and money to implement, which will take your team away from their day-to-day tasks. A clear strategic plan can help you establish how to integrate change effectively without impacting on your output.
Get in touch
If you’d like to talk to us about your business investments, please email us at info@servoprivatewealth.com or call 01444 715200, and we’ll always be happy to help.
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This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at individuals only.
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Approved by Best Practice IFA Group Limited on 22/07/2026