Author: Claude, Shenchao TechFlow
Are the "Big Seven" Not Enough? SpaceX Goes Public, Retail Investors Flock to Buy, Wall Street Unveils the "Big Ten AI Tech Companies"
DeepInsight summary: On its first day of trading last Friday, SpaceX attracted net retail purchases of $117 million, accounting for 56% of all U.S. retail stock buying that day. Research firm Vanda has introduced a new concept called "FAB 10," proposing to replace the long-standing "Magnificent Seven" with a new group of ten leaders in cutting-edge AI and technology, including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The latter two have not yet gone public but are expected to list later this year, with valuations potentially exceeding $1 trillion each.
SpaceX's debut listing is rewriting how Wall Street labels tech stocks.
According to a report released by Vanda Research last Sunday, as cited by Caixin, SpaceX's IPO last Friday achieved tremendous success amid strong retail investor demand, sparking market discussions about redefining the entire technology sector. Prior to this, the offering, which raised approximately $75 billion, was the largest IPO on record; SpaceX priced its shares at $135 each, valuing the company at around $1.75 trillion and placing it among the top ten most valuable publicly traded companies globally.
On SpaceX's first day of trading, retail buyers accounted for 56% of total market volume.
Vanda's data provided a quantitative footnote to this frenzy: according to the report, retail investors net bought $117 million in SpaceX on its first day of trading, accounting for 56% of all retail stock purchases across the U.S. stock market that day.
This figure reflects only retail purchases on the secondary market on the first day and does not include retail capital participating in the IPO allocation through brokers. Additional data shows that in this $75 billion offering, retail investors ultimately received approximately 20% of the allocation—above average—while hedge funds secured 10% and long-term institutional investors acquired 70%.
The concentrated bets by retail investors have further directed capital toward a small number of mega-cap tech companies. Vanda believes these firms not only dominate market performance but are also driving the entire wave of tech investment.
Vanda: Replace "Seven Giants" with "FAB 10"
Based on this assessment, Vanda proposed a new classification framework.
"If the market has been dominated by the 'Big Seven' over the past few years, last Friday may have been the clearest signal yet that investors are beginning to focus on what we call the 'FAB 10,'" Vanda wrote in the report. FAB 10 stands for Frontier AI & Big Tech 10, referring to ten leading companies in frontier AI and big tech.
According to Vanda's definition, FAB 10 adds SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic to the original seven giants. The latter two have not yet gone public, but the market expects them to enter the capital markets later this year, with valuations potentially reaching hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars.
Vanda's reasoning is straightforward: these companies collectively represent the direction of AI and the technology industry over the next decade.
The same concept, but Bank of America's version is different.
Packaging mega-cap tech stocks into a new index, Vanda is not the only player.
Previously, Bank of America’s chief strategist Michael Hartnett proposed an "AI Big 10" portfolio in The Guide to the Investment Universe. The difference from the FAB 10 lies in stock selection: Bank of America’s version includes the seven giants plus Broadcom, AMD, and Micron, leaning more heavily toward semiconductor hardware, while Vanda bets on unlisted AI model companies and SpaceX.
The divergence between the two lists is essentially a bet on who will define the next decade—one side bets on those building chips, the other on those creating models and launching rockets.
Retail investors flood into SpaceX, potentially draining liquidity from chip stocks
The other side of the new concept is the reallocation of funds.
Vanda researchers note that SpaceX's popularity may be drawing capital away from other hot sectors, particularly chip stocks that had previously surged, potentially losing favor with retail investors. In other words, not all members within FAB 10 are benefiting equally—the new entrant’s fundraising power may come at the expense of older members’ pullbacks.
However, analysts also caution that valuations across the entire technology sector are showing signs of a bubble. SpaceX’s $1.75 trillion valuation is itself built on optimistic expectations for AI infrastructure—and only the market can determine how long this optimism can be sustained.
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