Bank: Space industry worth $1tn by 2040
April 16, 2026
Researchers at investment bank Morgan Stanley’s Space Team estimates that the roughly $350 billion (€296.9bn) global space industry could surge to over $1 trillion by 2040. Indeed, the team say “Space is the place” with institutional and private cash going into what it lists as the ‘Top 60’ space-related businesses worthy of an investment.
The bank’s team say that a combination of scientific advancements, geopolitics and economics have rekindled investor attention on the Space theme to the highest levels we have seen since launching the Morgan Stanley Space Team nearly a decade ago.
“On April 1st, Artemis II lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a 10 day mission to send 4 astronauts on a flyby of the Moon. By 2028, the agency plans to put humans on the Moon, and eventually build a ‘Moon base’ for sustained lunar operations. The Trump Administration recently released a FY27 budget proposal calling for $1.5 trillion in defence spending (highest nominal request in history), and boosting the US Space Force budget by +77 per cent vs 2026 ($71 billion vs ~$40 billion). All at the same time, Project Hail Mary (a recreation of the 2021 Andy Weir space sci-fi novel) sits as the top grossing film YTD in theaters.”
Zooming out (2020-2025), the cumulative number of objects launched to space is compounding at a ~20 per cent annual rate and successful space launches at a ~25 per cent rate. “From our discussions, investors are looking for derivative expressions on the theme at sub-stratospheric valuations,” suggests the bank’s team.
The Space 60 is a comprehensive list of publicly-traded space enablers across the value chain, from raw materials producers, components manufacturers, and the operators themselves. Given the very large number of companies that are involved, the vast majority of the list is limited to primarily companies with a heavy US presence. The bank has also limited the number of companies in any given sub-category to create a list with broader representation across disciplines.
The bank has divided its list into seven primary categories:
• Raw Materials & Mining: Companies that extract the critical inputs from the ground to make space hardware possible.
• Specialty Materials & Alloys: Companies that engineer the high-performance materials built to withstand extreme heat, stress, and radiation.
• Propulsion & Fuels: Suppliers of important gases or liquid fuels to power launch systems or in-space propulsion.
• Electronics & Semiconductors: Companies producing space-grade semiconductors and electronics that enable compute, communication, and control in harsh orbital environments.
• Components & Subsystems: Companies manufacturing critical components (anything from sensor suites to fluid valves/pumps to structures) that keep spacecraft operational.
• Spacecraft & Launch Systems: Companies that design, build, and/or launch complete spacecraft.
• Satellite Operators & Services: Operators of satellite constellations and ground infrastructure that monetize data, connectivity, and communications between space and Earth.
However, the list is far from complete say observers. While SES, Eutelsat, Telesat (of Canada), Viasat, Iridium and now Amazon/Globalstar are listed (as is AST SpaceMobile) in the Satellite Operators & Services section, SpaceX is not shown (because it is not – yet – a listed company), nor is it shown in the Spacecraft & Launch Systems section.
Nevertheless, the study makes interesting reading.
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