G.L.A INVE$T RE$EARCH
Investors Who Inspire Us: Ron Baron on SPCX and TSLA
Some investors chase headlines. Ron Baron backs innovators, holds them for decades, and makes his clients billions.
This week, the billionaire founder of Baron Capital sat down for the Columbia Business School Distinguished Speaker Series and made what may be the most bullish call of his career. SpaceX could be worth up to $50 trillion in 10 years. Then he dropped the line everyone is quoting: "Elon thinks I'm way low."
We've watched the whole interview closely. Here's what he said, why it matters, and why G.L.A is all in on the same idea.youtube
Who Is Ron Baron?
Ron Baron is a true American investing success story.
Where he started: He grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey. As a teenager he saved $1,000 from shoveling snow, waiting tables, lifeguarding and selling ice cream, then grew it to $4,000 in stocks.finance.yahoo
A scientist first: He earned a chemistry degree from Bucknell in 1965, taught biochemistry at Georgetown, and worked as a U.S. Patent Office examiner while going to law school at night.x
His Wall Street start: He moved to New York in 1969 to become an analyst. His parents wanted him to be a doctor, and he got his first analyst job within four months.x
Building the firm: He founded Baron Capital on March 16, 1982, with three employees and $100,000 in starting capital, at a time when interest rates were 18% (Baron Capital; BBC).finance.yahoo+1
Today: Baron Capital managed $69.7 billion as of June 30, 2026. The firm says its investors have earned more than $71 billion in gains since 1992.finance.yahoo
Early in his career, Baron learned a key lesson. Holding great growth companies for the long term would have made far more money than trading them. That idea became the core of his firm. This fact, I finally realized myself in 2019 after mostly trading short term my whole career as a broker, once I figured this out the results drastically shifted.
He said it plainly at Columbia: "Not trading, owning. Not buying and selling, just owning."
That's our philosophy too.
Our Favorite 7 Companies For Longterm Growth. (CBRS,TEM,LMND,BMNR,AMZN,GOOG,BE -Honerable Mentions.)
The Tesla Call: From Skeptic to Billions
Baron's Tesla story is one of the best lessons in investing patience we know of.youtube
2010: Elon visited Baron before Tesla's IPO. Baron remembers him unshaven, in plaid that didn't match, cargo pants and clogs. Elon said Tesla would make 20 million cars a year. At the time it was making 2,000 to 3,000.
The Doubt: Unions, carmakers, oil companies and utilities were all against him. Baron had seen 50 or 60 car companies fail in his lifetime. His first thought was "not a chance."
The Research: He kept talking to Elon for four years. Elon later teased him on stage: "Sure took you long enough to invest in me."
The Payoff: From 2014 to 2016, Baron invested about $400 million in Tesla. It has made about $7.7 billion so far.
The Forecast: Baron expects to make about five times that again over the next 10 to 15 years.
The lesson is clear. Do the work, find a founder who can do what others say is impossible; long-term holding or monthly Dollar Cost Averaging are possible approaches.
The SpaceX Call: $20 Trillion to $50 Trillion
This is the headline.youtube
How he got in:
He started buying in 2017 through SpaceX's twice-a-year employee tender offers. Thanks to his Tesla relationship, he quickly became one of the top buyers, often first or second, alongside Abu Dhabi, Fidelity and Blackstone.
When other shareholders wanted to sell, SpaceX would call him: "There's $50 million, do you want it?" His answer was yes, every time.
From 2017 on, Baron invested about $2.5 billion. It was worth about $25 billion as of June.
When he started, he says SpaceX was valued at about $20 billion. Today it's about $2 trillion.
The move that stunned Wall Street:
The senior Goldman Sachs trader who managed the SpaceX IPO told Baron he feared long-time holders would sell as soon as they could. Instead, Baron already had $25 billion in the stock and bought another $1 billion. The trader said he had never seen anything like it. Baron did it to keep his 1.25% stake from being diluted.
The forecast, in his words:
"In 10 years, I think it's going to be thousands of dollars a share. I think it'll be worth 20 trillion, 30 trillion, 50 trillion. Elon thinks I'm way low."
What drives it:
Starlink: Baron thinks Starlink alone could be worth about $14 trillion to $15 trillion within 10 years, and he says it's "still at the very early stages" of its growth.
Data centers in space: He thinks this could become several times bigger than Starlink. "You can't build them on a planet anymore."
The bottom line: "This is not pulling numbers out of the air. I'm thinking we're going to make at least 20 or 30 times."
For reference, SpaceX's market value is currently about $2.06 trillion.projects · newsletter · week in review
Elon Agrees: The Numbers Are Low
Elon didn't just agree in private. On October 15 he replied to a clip of Baron's forecast on X: "Unless there is a major world war, SpaceX probably gets to >$100T in <10 years".
Late last year, Musk had only called a $100 trillion SpaceX "possible." Now he says "probably"
Baron's Advice for Beginners
This was our favorite part of the interview. Here's what Baron tells his friends and his doctors:youtube
"You should buy some SpaceX. And then you should keep buying it every month. Don't worry if it goes up and down... And then when you wake up one night in the middle of the night and you say, 'Oh my god, look how much I have invested in this'... when you wake up that morning, go to your broker and buy more."
That's dollar cost averaging, explained by an 83-year-old billionaire. Simple and patient, and it works.
G.L.A Take: Why We Totally Agree
This section is our opinion, separate from the facts above.
1. We agree with Ron Baron.
Baron spent four years researching Tesla before he invested. He was buying SpaceX at a $20 billion valuation before most investors could. Then he added $1 billion at the IPO when others were selling. That's what conviction looks like when it's backed by research, and it's how we invest at G.L.A.
2. We agree with Elon: Baron's numbers are probably conservative.
Starlink is still early. Data centers in space are still early. Reusable rockets bring launch costs down every year. When the person building the company says $100 trillion is the likely outcome, a $20 to $50 trillion range starts to look modest. We think Baron's forecast is the floor, not the ceiling.
3. Tesla and SpaceX are our two favorite long-term investments.
TSLA: Electric vehicles, energy storage, autonomy, robotaxis and humanoid robots, all built around one AI platform.
SPCX: Launch, Starlink, space-based computing, and the infrastructure for humanity's future off Earth.
Both are led by the same founder, and both are taking on problems most people think can't be solved.
4. Both are ideal for beginners using dollar cost averaging.
You don't need to time the market. Dollar cost averaging involves investing an affordable amount each month and setting aside the day-to-day noise. Holding for 10 years or more is what turns volatility into opportunity.
5. As we always say:
“THE COMPANIES THAT SOLVE THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS WILL PRODUCE THE LARGEST RETURNS! - Spacex and Tesla are solving the biggest problems in the world.” - Coach Kyle
Sustainable energy, transportation, global internet access, AI computing and becoming a multi-planetary species are some of the biggest problems there are. Tesla and SpaceX are working on all of them.
Thank you, Ron Baron, for showing a generation of investors what long-term ownership really means.
INVEST IN THE BEST, IGNORE THE REST, WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM G.L.A INVE$T!
Coach Kyle - CEO / CHIEF FUTURIST
G.L.A INVE$T RE$EARCH | The Infinite Innovation Newsletter
Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Coach Kyle and G.L.A INVE$T RE$EARCH are not brokers or registered investment advisers. Forecasts and valuation targets are opinions, not guarantees. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Do your own research and consider your own financial situation before investing.