{"id":860181,"date":"2026-06-11T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/860181\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:02:10","slug":"meet-the-spacex-employees-who-could-become-multimillionaires-thanks-to-its-ipo-even-welders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/860181\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the SpaceX employees who could become multimillionaires thanks to its IPO\u2014even welders"},"content":{"rendered":"

As markets brace for what could become one of the most consequential public offerings in modern history, Elon Musk\u2019s rocket giant SpaceX<\/a> is preparing to generate staggering wealth<\/a>\u2014not only for its billionaire founder<\/a>, but potentially for thousands of employees and investors.<\/p>\n

The biggest fortunes will flow to executives and early insiders. Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell<\/a> and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen each hold stakes that could reportedly be worth more than $1 billion, according to the Financial Times<\/a>. Antonio Gracias<\/a>, a SpaceX<\/a> director and founder of Valor Equity Partners, owns shares that could ultimately be worth some $65 billion, while another director, Luke Nosek, has a stake estimated at roughly $5 billion.<\/p>\n

But wealth creation won\u2019t be confined to the C-suite. Some 400 current and former SpaceX employees could see their stake worth soar to more than $100 million, according to an analysis by Hill.com, a San Francisco-based investment platform, first reported by The New York Times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In total, more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are expected to become millionaires in the IPO.<\/p>\n

Unlike many recent IPOs\u2014dominated by software startups<\/a> and AI firms<\/a>\u2014SpaceX has constructed its empire in factories, launchpads, and manufacturing facilities as much as engineering labs. To become the world\u2019s most dominant rocket company, Musk needed more than coders<\/a> and executives. He needed welders<\/a>, machinists, technicians, and manufacturing specialists by the thousands\u2014many of whom were offered company stock as part of their compensation.<\/p>\n

Juan Hernandez is one example. A former SpaceX welder who joined the company in 2015 earning $28 an hour, the Mexico-native is sitting on shares now worth roughly $880,000 at the anticipated IPO price of $135, according to The Wall Street Journal.<\/a><\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s IPO: a moment for the skilled trades, or a shift in financial risk?<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s IPO comes at a pivot moment around the future of work.<\/p>\n

As artificial intelligence reshapes white-collar jobs<\/a> and raises fears of workplace disruption, skilled trade<\/a> roles\u2014from welding and industrial maintenance to electrical work<\/a>\u2014have increasingly been viewed as among the least vulnerable to automation. At the same time, shortages of skilled labor<\/a> have left employers scrambling to fill manufacturing and infrastructure jobs critical to the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n

For some, the wealth potentially unlocked for thousands of skilled workers through SpaceX\u2019s IPO represents something larger: validation that hands-on careers deserve the same respect often reserved for white-collar work.<\/p>\n

Ruchir Shah, CEO of Skillcat<\/a>\u2014an online skilled trades training start-up\u2014said SpaceX is helping expose a broader truth about the future economy: some of the hardest jobs to automate\u2014and hardest workers to hire\u2014may increasingly sit in the physical world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about it, these are some of the most critical people for SpaceX to grow,\u201d Shah told Fortune. \u201cIt\u2019s just as hard to find good welders and good machinists as it is a software developer\u2014if not harder because if there\u2019s a massive shortage\u2014so it makes sense that they were given equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, while equity in a company with ambitious growth plans might sound lucrative, Jason Schloetzer<\/a>\u2014an associate professor of accounting at Georgetown University\u2019s McDonough School of Business\u2014cautioned against viewing SpaceX as evidence of a broad-based wave of skilled tradespeople suddenly accessing Silicon Valley-style wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing that I can see in the filing suggests a novel blue-collar equity model,\u201d he told Fortune. \u201cThis is largely venture-backed compensation attached to a company that happens to build rockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything, Schloetzer said, SpaceX illustrates how more financial risk is being shifted onto workers. Rather than receiving guaranteed compensation, many workers appear to participate through employee stock purchase plans\u2014programs that allow employees to buy discounted shares using deductions from their own paychecks rather than stock simply handed to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traditional industrial model paid skilled labor through pensions, profit-sharing, and union-negotiated packages where employers carried much of the uncertainty,\u201d Schloetzer said. \u201cEquity changes that risk profile.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even for workers sitting on valuable equity, paper wealth does not always translate into immediate cash. Lockup periods can limit when employees are able to sell, stock prices can fluctuate sharply after an IPO, and taxes can eat into gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cEquity worth millions on paper is not millions in the bank,\u201d Schloetzer said.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk has the most to gain from SpaceX\u2019s IPO\u2014but trillionaire status is far from guaranteed<\/p>\n

The biggest winner of the SpaceX IPO will be Musk. Already the world\u2019s richest person with $700 billion to his name, Musk owns roughly 43% of SpaceX\u2014which merged with xAi earlier this year<\/a>\u2014meaning a successful public debut could push his net worth beyond the $1 trillion mark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For critics of rising inequality, that possibility represents something far larger than a blockbuster IPO. According to Nabil Ahmed, Oxfam<\/a> America\u2019s senior director of economic justice, any employee windfall would likely pale in comparison to the extraordinary gains expected to accrue to Musk, warning the offering could intensify already historic levels of wealth concentration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running out of adjectives to describe the frightening scale of wealth concentration that we see in this moment,\u201d Ahmed told Fortune, calling the potential accumulation of wealth \u201ca shocking and frightening moment for our economy, for our society, for our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concern, Ahmed added, extends beyond Musk\u2019s personal fortune to the increasingly intertwined role his companies play in American life. SpaceX has become a major contractor for both NASA<\/a> and the U.S. Department of Defense<\/a>, while xAI is positioning itself as a key player in the race to build advanced artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Still, the enormous wealth projects surrounding SpaceX are far from guaranteed. The IPO aims to raise $75 billion<\/a> by selling 555.6 million shares at $135 per share, bringing the company\u2019s total valuation to $1.75 trillion. And some financial analysts have argued the company\u2019s anticipated valuation may already be priced in years of technological breakthroughs that have yet to materialize. Investment research firm Morningstar recently valued SpaceX<\/a> at roughly $63 per share\u2014more than 50% below its anticipated $135 IPO price.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven at $63 per share, we give SpaceX a lot of benefit of the doubt in two of the three scenarios, in which we assume the company can achieve a rapidly reusable Starship rocket enabling multiple launches per week and successfully commercialize data centers in space,\u201d Mornstar equity analyst Nicolas Owens wrote<\/a>. \u201cNeither of these engineering problems has been solved, and we don\u2019t expect them to be until at least 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you currently have a stake in SpaceX\u2014or have plans to invest after its IPO? Fortune wants to hear from you. Email preston.fore@fortune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As markets brace for what could become one of the most consequential public offerings in modern history, Elon…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":860182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[24803,53034,244,66,4209,18316,135,30674,6459,159,783,2527,350858,67,132,68,258,73590],"class_list":["post-860181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-aerospace","tag-aerospace-and-defense","tag-billionaires","tag-elon-musk","tag-investments","tag-ipos","tag-markets","tag-millionaires","tag-money","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-tech-valuations","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wealth","tag-wealth-inequality"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116732319944582082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}