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After 24 years as a private company, SpaceX became publicly traded on Friday. By the end of its first day, its stock price had settled at $160.95, bringing the company’s market capitalization to $2.11 trillion, between that of Amazon ($2.5 trillion) and Broadcom ($1.8 trillion).
At SpaceX’s IPO price of $135, Elon Musk‘s stake was worth approximately $866 billion. By the end of trading on Friday, the value of his stake jumped to $1.03 trillion.
Musk is, by far, the biggest beneficiary of the listing, making him the first trillionaire. And as the majority shareholder of SpaceX, Musk will continue to control more than 80% of the voting power.
Fund-returner? Try firm-returner
Some of Musk’s friends and early bettors on SpaceX are also teed up for massive gains. The paper value of Valor Equity Partners’ stake, whose managing partner, Antonio Gracias, is a close confidant of Musk and helped him develop the initial idea for SpaceX, was valued at $81 billion at market close on Friday.
To put Valor’s gains into perspective, between SpaceX’s founding and 2021, Valor invested between $400 million and $500 million into the company, according to a trial testimony Gracias gave in 2021. Even without accounting for investments that Valor may have made since 2021, the firm is sitting on paper returns of a more than 100x multiple on invested capital. Moreover, Gracias also has significant personal holdings in SpaceX.
Founders Fund, the venture capital firm of close Musk ally Peter Thiel, is also set for major returns: at a $135 share price, its stake is worth over $50 billion. DFJ Growth, the late-stage arm of the firm formerly known as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, invested $800 million across multiple rounds, taking a more than 2% stake.
Sequoia, which first invested in 2019, has a stake worth more than $20 billion, and even Andreessen Horowitz, which led SpaceX’s Series K in early 2023, still holds a roughly $10 billion stake at a $135 share price, per Bloomberg. Investors in Cursor, which SpaceX is expected to acquire later this year, also benefit from the windfall: Thrive Capital, a major backer of Cursor and a direct investor in SpaceX, has a stake worth roughly $10 billion.
For many investors, the SpaceX IPO is more than a liquidity event. Take Gracias: his firm’s stake is currently valued at more than the $59.3 billion in total assets under management that Valor Equity Partners reported this year. |
