He was present at the moment SpaceX nearly imploded. Now, private equity investor Antonio Gracias stands to pocket nearly $90 billion from his sizable bet on Elon Musk\u2019s marquee company.<\/p>\n
On June 3, SpaceX set a $135 share price for its initial public offering that would value the company at $1.8 trillion and crystallize it as the biggest IPO in stock market history (1). Musk will maintain control of the company after the IPO.<\/p>\n
Must Read <\/p>\n
At that amount, Musk\u2019s 50% stake in the company is worth $752 billion. Once SpaceX starts trading on the Nasdaq on June 12, share prices could climb even higher and eventually mint Musk as the world\u2019s first trillionaire.<\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s business is built on rockets and satellites frequently launched into space, and the company is involved in supplying the lunar equipment for astronauts to return to the moon sometime in 2028 (2). SpaceX also owns the artificial intelligence start-up xAI and Starlink, the satellite internet service.<\/p>\n
All the while, Gracias\u2019s allegiance to Musk has been a wildly profitable one. The pair are close friends, having spent Christmases together and taking joint vacations in Hawaii and Wyoming, The Wall Street Journal reported (3).<\/p>\n
\u201cI have worked closely with Elon for over 20 years,\u201d Gracias wrote in January 2025 on X (4). \u201cHis heart is pure, and his sole mission is to help humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $1 million loan <\/p>\n
Gracias founded Valor Equity Partners in 1995, which now manages $17.5 billion in assets. A longtime Musk ally, he extended a $1 million personal loan to Musk\u2019s SpaceX when the company struggled financially in 2008. He joined the board that year and remains a SpaceX executive.<\/p>\n
Gracias\u2019s investment portfolio is heavy on Musk-related companies. Valor controls a 7.2% stake in SpaceX, the second-largest stake after Musk himself (5). Through Valor, Gracias has also invested into Tesla, Solar City, the Boring Company and Neuralink in moves that helped Musk cement his expansive business empire.<\/p>\n
Read More: Taxes are going to change under Trump\u2019s \u2018big beautiful bill\u2019 \u2014 4 reasons you can\u2019t afford to waste time<\/a><\/p>\n Gracias\u2019s SpaceX holdings, though, may be his most valuable stake. Fortune reported that Gracias and Valor\u2019s SpaceX holdings could be worth roughly $90 billion (6). Gracias, who has a net worth of $4.3 billion (7) \u2014 stands to be one of the world\u2019s richest men due to his numerous investments into Musk\u2019s constellation of companies.<\/p>\n He was also an early institutional investor in Tesla, joining the automaker\u2019s board in 2008 through 2021. He engineered cost-saving initiatives, such as deploying Tesla salespeople to carry out test-drives for its vehicles at public events rather than building out a fleet of showrooms (8). He left after a corporate shakeup that slashed the number of board seats.<\/p>\n Musk credited Gracias with rescuing Tesla when production costs for the company\u2019s first car swelled past budget projections early on in its existence.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we would have made it without his help,\u201d Musk said of Gracias in a 2012 speech at the Economic Club of Chicago (9).<\/p>\n Gracias\u2019s DOGE stint <\/p>\n Gracias\u2019s loyalty to Musk went beyond the private sector.<\/p>\n Last year, he followed Musk into the Trump administration as the SpaceX founder was setting up the Department of Government Efficiency in an effort to sharply reduce public-sector ranks. Gracias joined DOGE as a volunteer to comb through Social Security Administration records searching for evidence of widespread voter fraud (10).<\/p>\n He never found it, and Gracias\u2019s stint in government was short-lived. DOGE\u2019s existence was marred by chaotic firings in government agencies, court battles, and failed spectacularly to achieve its $1 trillion cost-cutting goal. Gracias exited DOGE in July 2025, NBC News reported (11),.<\/p>\n You May Also Like <\/p>\n Join 250,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/p>\n Article Sources <\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n The New York Times (1<\/a>); NPR (2<\/a>), (10<\/a>); The Wall Street Journal (3<\/a>), (8<\/a>); X (4<\/a>); Bloomberg (5<\/a>); Yahoo Finance (6<\/a>); Forbes (7<\/a>); Buyouts Insider (9<\/a>); NBC News (11<\/a>).<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: He lent Elon Musk $1 million to save SpaceX from bankruptcy \u2014 now his 7.2% stake could be worth $90 billion<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was present at the moment SpaceX nearly imploded. Now, private equity investor Antonio Gracias stands to pocket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[211110,49,48,250,163,66,306,6888],"class_list":["post-716954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-antonio-gracias","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elon-musk","tag-initial-public-offering","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}