Antonio Gracias, one of Elon Musk’s oldest friends and closest business allies, stands to make roughly $90 billion from SpaceX’s imminent initial public offering, according to regulatory filings and reporting from Fortune and Business Insider. The private equity investor and founder of Valor Equity Partners controls approximately 7.3% of SpaceX Class A stock—more than 500 million shares—making him the company’s second-largest individual shareholder after Musk himself.
Quick Facts
- Gracias’ SpaceX stake valued at $90 billion at the targeted $1.75 trillion IPO valuation
- At higher valuations, his holdings could exceed $140 billion
- SpaceX plans to raise $75 billion in the IPO at $135 per share
- Gracias has served on SpaceX’s board since 2010 and invested in multiple Musk ventures
The two met through Silicon Valley and PayPal circles in the early 2000s, shortly after Musk sold PayPal to eBay. Gracias has since become a fixture across Musk’s empire—sitting on the boards of Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. During Tesla’s near-bankruptcy in its early years, Gracias lent Musk $1 million to keep the company afloat.
Valor Equity Partners became one of Tesla’s earliest institutional investors in 2005 and has steadily expanded its position in SpaceX over more than two decades. The S-1 filing released this week shows Gracias’ stake would elevate him among the world’s 50 wealthiest people, even at the more conservative $1.75 trillion valuation that Bloomberg and Reuters have reported SpaceX is targeting.
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Beyond his equity windfall, Gracias is also on the other side of substantial financial arrangements with SpaceX. According to the S-1 filing, subsidiaries tied to xAI—Musk’s AI company that SpaceX absorbed in February—have entered into nearly $20 billion in lease agreements with Valor-affiliated entities for AI infrastructure and computing equipment. Those contracts generated roughly $885 million in payments to Valor during 2025 and another $857 million in the first two months of 2026.
SpaceX is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX around mid-June at the $135-per-share price. At that valuation, the IPO would raise $75 billion—more than twice the prior record for the largest IPO, set by Saudi Aramco’s 2019 debut at $29 billion.
Sources
- Fortune — Detailed reporting on Gracias’ stake value at various SpaceX valuations and related-party transactions with xAI
- Business Insider — Analysis of Gracias’ SpaceX holdings and his relationship with Musk spanning two decades
- Reuters — IPO pricing and valuation details
- Bloomberg — Confirmation of Gracias’ 4% economic stake and SpaceX valuation targets
