Antonio Gracias, one in all Elon Musk’s closest confidants and an early SpaceX investor, might land a large multibillion-dollar windfall from the company’s upcoming IPO.
The SpaceX S-1 submitting exhibits that Gracias owns greater than 500 million shares of SpaceX inventory via funding corporations affiliated with Valor Fairness Companions, the personal fairness agency he based. The submitting says these holdings characterize roughly 7.3% of SpaceX’s Class A inventory forward of the IPO.
Primarily based on a $1.5 trillion valuation some buyers count on SpaceX to attain in its IPO, these holdings could be price roughly $91.6 billion.
The quantity would mark one of many largest fortunes ever created by a enterprise investor.
Gracias’ relationship with Musk dates again greater than twenty years.
The 2 met via Silicon Valley and PayPal circles within the early 2000s, shortly after Musk bought PayPal to eBay. On the time, Gracias was rising Valor Fairness Companions, the Chicago-based funding agency he based in 1995.
Gracias grew to become one in all Musk’s most trusted confidants and one of many small group of executives Musk repeatedly leaned on for recommendation.
Learn extra about SpaceX’s IPO
When Tesla confronted repeated monetary challenges through the late 2000s, and once more through the Mannequin 3 manufacturing ramp, Gracias emerged as one in all Musk’s strongest defenders inside Tesla’s boardroom. He was additionally concerned throughout a number of different Musk firms because the billionaire entrepreneur expanded into rockets, AI, satellites, and infrastructure with SpaceX and xAI.
Valor grew to become one of many earliest main institutional buyers in SpaceX and steadily expanded its place whereas the corporate remained personal for greater than twenty years.
The SpaceX submitting exhibits the connection now extends nicely past inventory possession.
In keeping with the S-1 submitting, subsidiaries tied to xAI entered into almost $20 billion in lease agreements with Valor-affiliated entities for AI infrastructure and computing gear. These contracts generated a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funds to those Valor-related entities throughout 2025 and early 2026.
Nosek and Shotwell will even make billions
The submitting exhibits how concentrated SpaceX inventory possession stays among the many remainder of Musk’s longtime allies.
Luke Nosek, a fellow PayPal alum and early Musk affiliate, owns almost 33 million SpaceX shares via direct holdings and Nosek Capital. On the present IPO valuation, his stake could be price roughly $6 billion. Nosek additionally co-founded VC agency Founders Fund.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief working officer, owns roughly 12.6 million shares of SpaceX. Her holdings could be price about $2.3 billion on the estimated IPO valuation.
Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as worker No. 11 and have become one of many firm’s most impactful executives, serving to safe NASA contracts and overseeing the expansion of Falcon launches and Starlink into companies.
Different administrators personal smaller however nonetheless substantial positions.
Ira Ehrenpreis, the VC finest identified for serving on Tesla’s board, owns about 1.37 million SpaceX shares. These holdings could be price roughly $250 million.
Randy Glein, founding father of VC agency DFJ Development, owns about 278,000 shares. His holdings could be price roughly $50 million.
A brand new submitting launched Thursday indicated that the corporate goals to boost $75 billion in its preliminary public providing. It plans to supply 555,555,555 shares of frequent inventory at $135 per share. That providing could be over twice the prior file for the most important IPO, set by Aramco when it raised $29 billion in its 2019 debut.
