At a glance
- The fund has more than 30% of assets in the rocket builder.
- Connectivity is where the report carries the most weight.
- The concentration is the issue for allocators.
SpaceX's first earnings report as a public company supports the large position Baron First Principles ETF holds in it. The fund has more than 30% of assets in the rocket builder. ETF Trends, covering the results, says revenue grew 92% year over year after the June listing, with gains in space, connectivity, and AI.
Connectivity is where the report carries the most weight. The year-over-year growth rate of Starlink subscribers doubled. Connectivity revenue rose 66%, and operating income jumped 79% — leverage from owning the launch infrastructure and the satellite network itself. Starshield, the secure satellite network, won more than $6 billion in multi-year U.S. government contracts. On the software side, the company closed $14.1 billion in contracted cloud-services sales, introduced Grok 4.5, and agreed to pay $60 billion for AI coding platform Cursor. Starship V3 completed two test flights in the past 90 days, moving the platform closer to full reusability and lower cost per payload ton.
One stock, three industries
The concentration is the issue for allocators. RONB is an active ETF built on Baron's First Principles discipline: understand the foundational technology, back the company that dominates adjacent markets, and let winners run. SpaceX operates where aerospace, telecom, and AI meet, making RONB a bet on a single corporate plan. An index fund cannot replicate that exposure; the fund's fortunes now rise and fall with SpaceX's quarterly execution.
A strong earnings print helps the case; it does not prove the bet is durable. The next quarterly report will show whether a 30% position at these valuations remains a feature or turns into a liability.
Reported by the Active desk from ETF Trends. Published . Corrections