From welder to Saudi billionaire: A list of big winners from SpaceX's blockbuster IPO
This is the biggest wealth event since Facebook went public, except nobody saw these winners coming.
- Jun 17, 2026,
- Updated Jun 17, 2026 8:00 AM IST
SpaceX went public on Friday.
By midnight, people nobody had heard of were billionaires.
A factory-floor welder. A Saudi sovereign fund. Early angels who kept writing cheques while rockets exploded.
They all cashed out. Quietly. Massively.
This is the biggest wealth event since Facebook went public, except nobody saw these winners coming.
Not even them. Who are they? How much did they make? Brace yourself.
As the founder and largest stakeholder of SpaceX, Musk held around 42% stake at the time of the IPO. After the IPO, Musk's wealth surged by around $750 billion (₹715.58 lakh crore) after the listing, making him the world's first-ever trillionaire.
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Antonio Gracias
He is one of SpaceX's earliest backers and a close ally of Elon Musk. His stake in the company is reportedly worth over $75 billion after the IPO.
Jose Hernandez
Hernandez joined SpaceX in 2015 as a welder and received employee stock options worth around $10,000 (around ₹9.5 lakh) as part of compensation. After the IPO, he made around 100x on his ESOPs as his shares ballooned to nearly $1 million (nearly ₹9.5 crore).
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
The Saudi Prince-owned Kingdom Holding made its first investment in SpaceX as late as 2022. At present, it holds around 42.4 million SpaceX shares. The value of its stake rose to nearly $6.8-7 billion after the blockbuster IPO, accounting for roughly half of Kingdom Holding's market capitalisation.
In 2015, Google invested around $900 million (around ₹8,500 crore) in SpaceX alongside Fidelity and acquired a 7.64% stake in the company, which it later diluted to about 6%.
At the time, SpaceX's valuation stood at around $12 billion. After the IPO, Google's return on investment stood at nearly 147 times the original investment as the value of its stake jumped to around $132 billion (₹1.26 lakh crore).
Founders Fund
The Peter Thiel-led Founders Fund backed the company in 2008 when it had just suffered multiple launches and was close to running out of cash before the Falcon 1 rocket launch. The fund invested around $600 million cumulatively across multiple funding rounds over nearly two decades, taking its stake in SpaceX to around 3%.
After the IPO, the fund scored roughly 83x its investment as it logged returns worth more than $50 billion.
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital made its first investment in SpaceX as late as 2019. The venture capital invested around $2 billion across multiple rounds after entering SpaceX. After the IPO, Sequoia Capital made around 10x its initial investment as it logged returns worth over $20 billion on a stake of around 1.5%.
SpaceX went public on Friday.
By midnight, people nobody had heard of were billionaires.
A factory-floor welder. A Saudi sovereign fund. Early angels who kept writing cheques while rockets exploded.
They all cashed out. Quietly. Massively.
This is the biggest wealth event since Facebook went public, except nobody saw these winners coming.
Not even them. Who are they? How much did they make? Brace yourself.
As the founder and largest stakeholder of SpaceX, Musk held around 42% stake at the time of the IPO. After the IPO, Musk's wealth surged by around $750 billion (₹715.58 lakh crore) after the listing, making him the world's first-ever trillionaire.
MUST CHECKOUT | A Tesla for every person alive? Here's what Elon Musk's next wealth target could buy
Antonio Gracias
He is one of SpaceX's earliest backers and a close ally of Elon Musk. His stake in the company is reportedly worth over $75 billion after the IPO.
Jose Hernandez
Hernandez joined SpaceX in 2015 as a welder and received employee stock options worth around $10,000 (around ₹9.5 lakh) as part of compensation. After the IPO, he made around 100x on his ESOPs as his shares ballooned to nearly $1 million (nearly ₹9.5 crore).
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
The Saudi Prince-owned Kingdom Holding made its first investment in SpaceX as late as 2022. At present, it holds around 42.4 million SpaceX shares. The value of its stake rose to nearly $6.8-7 billion after the blockbuster IPO, accounting for roughly half of Kingdom Holding's market capitalisation.
In 2015, Google invested around $900 million (around ₹8,500 crore) in SpaceX alongside Fidelity and acquired a 7.64% stake in the company, which it later diluted to about 6%.
At the time, SpaceX's valuation stood at around $12 billion. After the IPO, Google's return on investment stood at nearly 147 times the original investment as the value of its stake jumped to around $132 billion (₹1.26 lakh crore).
Founders Fund
The Peter Thiel-led Founders Fund backed the company in 2008 when it had just suffered multiple launches and was close to running out of cash before the Falcon 1 rocket launch. The fund invested around $600 million cumulatively across multiple funding rounds over nearly two decades, taking its stake in SpaceX to around 3%.
After the IPO, the fund scored roughly 83x its investment as it logged returns worth more than $50 billion.
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital made its first investment in SpaceX as late as 2019. The venture capital invested around $2 billion across multiple rounds after entering SpaceX. After the IPO, Sequoia Capital made around 10x its initial investment as it logged returns worth over $20 billion on a stake of around 1.5%.