Antonio Gracias, Elon Musks Friend, Is Set to Reap Billions From SpaceXs IPO
For 25 years, Antonio Gracias has dedicated himself to serving as one of Elon Musk’s most loyal lieutenants, doing anything and everything to aid the tech mogul across his business and political empire.On Friday, it’s payday.When SpaceX, Mr.Musk’s rocket company, most likely starts trading on the stock market that day, Mr.
Gracias and his private equity firm, Valor Equity Partners, are set to reap one of the largest-ever returns from a private investment.Valor is the second-biggest disclosed shareholder in SpaceX after Mr.
Musk, and the blockbuster initial public offering will almost certainly make both Mr.Gracias and his Chicago-based firm billions of dollars.Mr.
Gracias and Valor control a $65 billion stake in SpaceX at its target I.P.O.valuation of $1.77 trillion, according to calculations by The New York Times.
If SpaceX soars when it starts trading, Mr.Gracias, 55, will instantly become one of the world’s wealthiest people — though he would still be less rich than Mr.
Musk, who could become a trillionaire.Mr.Gracias’s potential windfall from SpaceX shows how extreme wealth can be created by betting on one friend over and over — in this case tying himself to Mr.
Musk, a once-in-a-lifetime wealth-generation machine, and holding on for dear life.“Antonio’s ownership stems from absolute support, even when it looked like SpaceX would fail, and many investments over 2 decades,” Mr.Musk posted on Saturday on X, his social media platform.
“One could not ask for a better friend.”Mr.Gracias is so financially intertwined with SpaceX that the company’s I.P.O.
filing required a 390-word footnote to identify the 30 separate Valor- and Gracias-affiliated entities that control 503 million of the rocket maker’s shares, totaling about 3.7 percent of the company.Five of those entities appear to be space-focused funds, or what Mr.
Gracias has called “single asset vehicles.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable J...