D1 Capital Partners recorded a 39 per cent gain across its private investment portfolio last year, driven largely by its long-standing investment in Elon Musk’s SpaceX following a sharp uplift in the company’s valuation, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The New York-based hedge fund said SpaceX now accounts for roughly 45 per cent of its venture capital and private equity exposure, according to people familiar with the matter. Excluding the SpaceX position, D1’s private investments would have risen by approximately 18% over the period.
In a letter to investors, founder Dan Sundheim described SpaceX’s recent valuation increase – which took the company to an estimated $800bn – as a reflection of “transformational progress” across its core businesses. Sundheim said the firm believes SpaceX could ultimately become the single largest driver of value creation within D1’s portfolio.
The update provides fresh insight into how D1’s largest private positions have evolved since 2022, when the fund was hit by falling technology stocks and markdowns across venture capital. That year, the fund suffered a decline of more than 30%, with private valuations weighing heavily on returns
Alongside SpaceX, D1’s private portfolio also benefited from gains in Ramp, a corporate spend management platform that reached a valuation of $32bn last year. Other notable contributors included OpenAI, DriveNets and AI-focused startup Anthropic.
Public market investments also performed strongly. D1’s public book generated a blended return of 32.3 per cent, while its largest share class, which allocates around 35 per cent to private investments, delivered gains of 33.7 per cent. Performance was supported by successful long positions in names such as Siemens Energy, Hanwha Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and AppLovin.
Assets under management rose to $31.1bn by the end of December, with approximately two-thirds allocated to private investments and the remainder invested in public equities.
The firm is currently raising its first dedicated private equity fund and has secured $1.5bn in commitments, largely from existing investors, exceeding its initial fundraising target. A final close is expected later this year. D1 is also evaluating the launch of a long-only investment strategy.
Despite the strong overall performance, the firm continued to mark down a number of private holdings during the year, including Lineage Inc., Dream11, ByHeart and Kavak. The most significant negative impact came from Lineage, whose shares fell following its 2024 IPO.
D1 first invested in SpaceX in early 2020, when the company was valued at $36bn. Sundheim highlighted further growth potential from Starlink, direct-to-cell satellite connectivity, defence-related activity and longer-term ambitions such as space-based data infrastructure.
