When SpaceX goes public on June 12 with an IPO share price of $135, the offering may make its billionaire founder, Elon Musk, the world\u2019s first trillionaire (1).<\/p>\n
While that staggering wealth accumulation grabs headlines, stories of ordinary employees set to make personal fortunes off their shares could prove even more intriguing.<\/p>\n
Must Read <\/p>\n
One of those workers \u2014 former SpaceX employee Juan Hernandez \u2014 is among them.<\/p>\n
The 42-year-old immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. and told the Wall Street Journal that he \u201cdidn\u2019t even know what SpaceX was when my friend was talking about it\u201d back in 2015 (2).<\/p>\n
A welder by trade, Hernandez applied for a $28-an-hour job as a contractor with SpaceX that year because \u201cthe money was sufficient at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the next decade, the WSJ noted, he parlayed his SpaceX equity into a stash of shares worth $880,000 and his own business ventures \u2014 while also currently working as a welder for Jeff Bezos\u2019 rival Blue Origin rocket company.<\/p>\n
How Hernandez grew his stake <\/p>\n
Skilled trades like Hernandez are at the heart of SpaceX\u2019s success since its founding in 2002.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think about it, these are some of the most critical people for SpaceX to grow,\u201d Ruchir Shah, the CEO of trades training app Skillcat, told Fortune (3). \u201cIt\u2019s just as hard to find good welders and good machinists as it is a software developer \u2014 if not harder, because if there\u2019s a massive shortage, so it makes sense that they were given equity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez\u2019s equity, the WSJ reported, started with $10,000 in shares, which he added to from his own paycheck, leading to an amount that he said put him \u201cin a comfortable position for life.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes $880,000 worth of shares he still holds based on the $135 IPO price \u2014 along with a real estate business he started, as well as properties he purchased by selling some of his stock over the years (2).<\/p>\n
Read More: About 1 in 5 Americans over 50 has zero retirement savings \u2014 here’s the catch-up plan you can actually use<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Hernandez, meanwhile, isn\u2019t the only former SpaceX employee with a potential fortune on their hands as the IPO prepares to drop.<\/p>\n The New York Times highlighted that \u201cmore than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are likely to become millionaires in the IPO,\u201d with about 400 of them topping out at more than $100 million (4).<\/p>\n According to CNBC, experts expect a luxury spending spree from employees with their newfound fortunes, focusing on everything from jewelry and cars to expensive homes near SpaceX\u2019s California office (5).<\/p>\n Moneywise reached out to SpaceX for comment, but didn\u2019t hear back by its deadline.<\/p>\n Possible IPO perils <\/p>\n Not everyone, however, is on board with the SpaceX valuation of $135 per share.<\/p>\n Morningstar, for example, called the SpaceX IPO \u201covervalued\u201d and pegged it at $63 a share, adding that the valuation \u201chinges on two unproven technologies: a rapidly reusable Starship upper stage and commercially scalable and competitive orbital AI data centers (6).\u201d<\/p>\n It may be one financial company\u2019s opinion, but it\u2019s a sign that investors, as well as current and former employees, should remain cautious about their SpaceX stock earnings.<\/p>\n Georgetown University\u2019s McDonough School of Business professor Jason Schloetzer added the kicker that \u201cequity worth millions on paper is not millions in the bank,\u201d as outside forces like taxes and stock fluctuations can impact overall valuations (3).<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n MSN (1<\/a>); The Wall Street Journal (2<\/a>); Fortune (3<\/a>); The New York Times (4<\/a>); CNBC (5<\/a>); Morningstar (6<\/a>)<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: He turned a $10,000 SpaceX grant into about $880,000 \u2014 then left to weld for Elon Musk\u2019s rival<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When SpaceX goes public on June 12 with an IPO share price of $135, the offering may make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,1647,19,17,228855,228856,37501,133,451,135360,22147],"class_list":["post-531262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-eire","tag-elon-musk","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-juan-hernandez","tag-personal-fortunes","tag-robert-kiyosaki","tag-science","tag-space","tag-taylor-hill","tag-wall-street-journal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116736146249942859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}