The successful completion of aerospace company SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) has delivered enormous gains to early investors, executives, employees and even university endowments. Those who recognized the company's growth potential early and invested or held shares have realized large valuation gains through the listing.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday profiled executives, investors, employees and universities that reaped significant gains from the SpaceX listing.
One of the most prominent investors is Ron Baron, an 83-year-old mutual fund manager. A longtime believer in SpaceX's growth potential, he began investing in 2017 when the company was valued at around $22 billion.
Baron is also known for lending a total of $100 million, including $35 million of his own money, to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in 2022 when Musk was struggling to raise funds to acquire X, formerly Twitter. As of last month, SpaceX accounted for 30% of the funds Baron manages, with Tesla making up 19%.
Gavin Baker, famous as an investor who recognized Nvidia's growth potential early, is also counted among the beneficiaries of this listing. He participated in the investment when SpaceX raised venture funding in 2015, while he was at Fidelity Investments. He later acquired additional stakes even after founding his own investment firm.
Darsana Capital Partners is also known to have invested in SpaceX since 2019. The hedge fund reportedly has not sold a single SpaceX share to date. The Wall Street Journal estimated that the fund's investment returns could exceed $10 billion.
Employees' success stories are also drawing attention. Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX who has worked at the company for more than 20 years, is a major shareholder and key executive who stood at the Nasdaq listing opening bell ceremony.
Engineer Andre Lavoie is another notable example. He received and held shares from a time when the value of SpaceX stock was less than $2 per share (about 3,000 won). The number of shares he held subsequently grew through a stock split, and through this listing the value of that stake surpassed $28 million (about 42.41 billion won).
"I don't want to die with money piled up in the bank," Lavoie said, expressing his desire to spend money on a project to change the heating system of the Italian village where he lives.
It was also an opportunity for younger employees. Maryellen Mussleman, who joined SpaceX in 2022 and has worked as a ship engineer, consistently used 10% of her salary to purchase company stock over two years. While she did not disclose the size of her holdings, she shared her dream of running a ship repair business in the future.
Board members and venture investors also reaped significant benefits. Antonio Gracias, who has invested in numerous technology companies, and Valor Equity Partners, which he runs, reportedly earned enormous profits from this listing.
Founders Fund, the venture capital firm of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was one of SpaceX's earliest investors. Andreessen Horowitz, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, is also known to hold about $10 billion worth of SpaceX shares.
University endowments also became beneficiaries of SpaceX's growth. The University of North Carolina secured a SpaceX stake by investing early in Founders Fund. The University of Washington also invested in SpaceX in 2018. However, these universities reportedly sold some of their stakes before the IPO.
