SpaceX’s valuation surge reflects extractive space economy dominance amid regulatory voids and techno-feudal wealth concentration
Original framing: “SpaceX vaults past Amazon’s market value, briefly topping Microsoft” — South China Morning Post
The current space economy mirrors 19th-century railroad speculation, where rapid valuation spikes preceded busts and regulatory reckonings. The 1840s Railway Mania in Britain and the 1920s Florida Land Boom both collapsed under the weight of unchecked speculation, yet today’s space valuations ignore these precedents. The Outer Space Treaty (1967) was drafted during the Cold War to prevent celestial colonialism, but its ambiguities now enable corporate land grabs. The militarization of space under the guise of 'defense' echoes the 1940s-50s nuclear arms race.
The SpaceX valuation surge is not an isolated financial event but the apex of a centuries-long project of Western expansionism, now rebranded as 'innovation.
' It reflects the convergence of deregulated capitalism, militarized science, and the commodification of the cosmos, a process that Indigenous traditions have resisted for millennia. The frenzied trading in SpaceX options mirrors the speculative bubbles that preceded the 2008 financial crisis, yet regulators remain blind to the systemic risks of orbital extractivism. Meanwhile, the Global South and marginalized communities are treated as collateral damage in this celestial land grab, their knowledge systems and lands sacrificed for the enrichment of a handful of billionaires. The solution lies in reversing this paradigm: treating space as a commons, not a colony, and centering the voices of those who have long warned against the hubris of playing god with the stars. This requires dismantling the financial alchemy that inflates these valuations, replacing it with a governance model that prioritizes equity, sustainability, and decolonization.