By  Crystal Kim

One billionaire investor—and longtime Elon Musk supporter—is just about all-in on SpaceX.

That bet could pay off big should the company, expected to launch its IPO this year, land on public markets as expected. Ron Baron, chief of Baron Capital, said his firm's stake in SpaceX accounts for a little more than a quarter of the asset manager's almost $56 billion in assets under management, or roughly $15 billion. (It also has $5 billion in Tesla (TSLA), the carmaker turned robotics company.) After Musk's rocket company goes public—it is reportedly seeking a valuation at or above $1.75 trillion valuation and aims to raise over $75 billion—Baron reckons it will become "the largest company on the planet," he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.

SpaceX's IPO, reportedly codenamed "Project Apex," could land as soon as June. It will likely be closely watched by institutional and retail investors alike. Major index providers are changing their rules, or in the process of changing them, to fast-track mega IPOs into the likes of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite. All this, of course, stands to make Musk, a major shareholder; Tesla shareholders; and even the market as a whole richer.

Baron on Tuesday told CNBC that his initial $1.7 billion investment in the rocket maker in 2017 is worth $15 billion at current market prices. Baron Capital, he said, is "one of the largest, if not the largest" buyer of the rocket maker's shares, participating in its twice-a-year tender offers, which see demand outstrip supply. "They get oversubscribed without any announcements and no bankers in one afternoon," Baron said.

If that applies to SpaceX's IPO, the company's shares will likely pop on their debut. Between the company's ambitions to launch reusable rockets, and deploy space-based AI data centers, Baron said the company could be worth between $10 trillion and $30 trillion over the next 10 to 15 years—what he says could be a "very low" estimate of its potential value.

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Musk, estimated to own a 43% stake in SpaceX in February, stands to gain in more ways than one as the rocket maker's market capitalization grows. The company is said to have approved a plan in March—when the company confidentially filed for its IPO—that would award the CEO 60 million shares if the company's market capitalization climbs from $1.1 trillion to $6.6 trillion, with the stock vesting in $500 billion increments, according to The Information. Nvidia (NVDA), currently the world's most valuable public company, has a $5.3 trillion market capitalization at recent prices.

Baron believes SpaceX’s market value could get a post-IPO boost from accelerated membership in major benchmark indexes. That inclusion might also please index investors who might like to see it—and other hot expected IPOs—in the popular index funds in which many of them put their money.

Source: Investopedia