SpaceX IPO Set to Turn Thousands of Employees Into Millionaires

SpaceX’s planned initial public offering is expected to make Elon Musk even richer and potentially the world’s first trillionaire, but the bigger immediate impact may fall on current and former employees who hold company stock. Many workers received shares as part of their pay, and the article says more than 4,400 people are likely to become millionaires once those holdings can be sold.

One example is Jay Andre Laboy, 63, who left SpaceX in 2015 and moved to northern Italy. He bought a hotel in Pognana and is renovating it with money from his SpaceX stock, which is worth more than $28 million at the IPO price of $135 a share. “I do not want to die with a pile of cash in the bank,” he told The Wall Street Journal, adding that each year the stock rose so sharply that he kept revising his plans.

Juan Hernandez, 42, came to the United States from Mexico, learned welding, and joined SpaceX in 2015 after hearing of an opening. He started as a contractor earning $28 an hour, later got $10,000 in stock, and began selling small portions in 2020 when SpaceX was valued at $36 billion. He used the proceeds to buy property in Texas and start a small real estate business with his wife. His remaining stake is now worth about $880,000, and he has since moved to Blue Origin as a welder at its launch site.

Marilyn Musselman, 27, plans to use her shares to open a repair business after working at SpaceX from 2022 to 2024 as an engineer on a vessel that recovered rocket parts from the ocean. She said she converted 10 percent of her salary into stock in addition to her grant. The beneficiaries include engineers, technicians, baristas, and other support workers in California, Texas, and Florida, some of whom received shares worth less than $2 each when granted. Hill.com, cited by The New York Times, said about 400 employees could each make $100 million or more. They will not be able to sell immediately, though some may be allowed to sell limited amounts as soon as July.