Musk Is Now a Trillionaire — and SpaceX’s IPO Is Also Creating Thousands of Millionaires

Thousands of current and former SpaceX employees are now worth millions after the Elon Musk-founded company went public Friday on the Nasdaq stock market. Employees have accrued shares in the company over the past 24 years in exchange for being paid below-market salaries. Employees had to stay at the company for five years for those shares to fully vest and they now have exploded in value. SpaceX offered more than 555 million shares for sale at $135 apiece in the biggest-ever initial public offering. Trading started shortly before noon at $150 a share and the stock was selling at more than $170 a share in the early afternoon.The founder and chief executive officer of the pre-IPO trading platform Hill Markets, Andrew Benson, said that the IPO would create 4,000 millionaires and 400 employees who joined the company before its first successful rocket launch in 2008 made more than $100 million Friday if they hung onto all of their shares over the years.SpaceX has around 22,000 employees and while many of them are not seeing seven-figure wealth from the stock, many are seeing smaller windfalls. While executives are the usual winners from stock sales, SpaceX gave stock options to a variety of hourly employees, including factory workers including machinists and technicians.A former contract welder, Juan Hernandez, was eventually offered a full-time job earning $28 an hour. He was also given equity that vested after five years. He also used part of his paycheck to continue collecting shares. He sold off some shares over the years to buy properties around Texas but kept the rest after leaving the company last year. Those shares are now worth roughly $880,000. “It’s put me in a comfortable position for life,” Mr. Hernandez told the Wall Street Journal.Employees can’t dump all of their shares now because SpaceX restricted selling those shares as part of the IPO.Those employees are already deciding what they are going to do with their sudden wealth. Luxury real estate agent Gerard Bisgnano told CNBC that several longtime SpaceX employees have started considering new properties in expensive coastal communities near SpaceX’s California office. He said there would probably be a run on second homes in other areas of California, like Palm Springs and Tahoe.A group of employees have already worked together with a wealth management firm to create a low-fee advisory option. Sources told CNBC that the annual management fee would be under 0.5 percent, which would undercut the industry standard of 0.5 percent and 1 percent.Even some former employees are seeing their former work pay off. Gavin Petit joined SpaceX in 2012 as an engineer. He was awarded several thousand shares and took company bonuses in stock. He told the New York Times that he sold some of his private shares over the years to pay off his home but held on to more than 50,000 shares. He’s now worth more than $6 million.Mr. Musk, already the world’s richest man, became a trillionaire with Friday’s stock offering.

Musk Is Now a Trillionaire — and SpaceX’s IPO Is Also Creating Thousands of Millionaires

Musk Is Now a Trillionaire — and SpaceX’s IPO Is Also Creating Thousands of Millionaires

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