Mucho Gracias: Elon Musk's Longtime Friend And Business Ally, Antonio Gracias, Could Make $20 BILLION From The SpaceX IPO

On Wednesday, SpaceX released its SEC S-1 filing, a 400-page document listing all the reasons it should be a $2 trillion company when it goes public next month.

The filing revealed some stats we pretty much already knew. For example, according to the filing, Elon Musk beneficially owns roughly 849 million Class A shares and 5.57 billion Class B shares, giving him 85.1% of SpaceX's voting power before the IPO. For net worth purposes, the cleaner number is lower because Musk's total includes restricted shares that have not yet been fully earned. "The Wall Street Journal" pegs his effective economic stake at slightly more than 40%. At a potential $2 trillion IPO valuation, that stake would be worth more than $800 billion, enough to put Musk within striking distance of becoming the first trillionaire in human history.

The S-1 also revealed another remarkable SpaceX fortune. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's longtime president and chief operating officer, beneficially owns roughly 5.46 million Class A shares and 7.11 million Class B shares. That's about 12.57 million shares in total. At a $2 trillion valuation, Shotwell's stake would be worth roughly $2 billion.

FYI, Elon's name is mentioned 174 times in the S-1. Gwynne's name is mentioned 38 times.

And then there's this name, which I'm guessing you've never heard before: Antonio Gracias.

Antonio's name is mentioned just TWICE. On the other hand, the company he founded, Valor Equity Partners, is mentioned 68 times. Valor is primarily mentioned in a very subtle section where SpaceX's "beneficial ownership" stats are listed. In this section alone, dozens of different "Valor Entities" (like Valor Equity Partners VI L.P., Valor IV Space Holdings, etc.) are named.

When you add up all these ownership stakes, Valor is the largest non-Musk ownership block of SpaceX.

The S-1 attributes more than 503 million Class A shares to Gracias through a web of Valor-related entities. The adjusted Valor/Gracias holding represents about 7.3% of SpaceX. If SpaceX goes public next month at a $2 trillion valuation, that stake would be worth roughly $146 billion.

And that's where this story gets interesting.

Because Antonio Gracias is not a random hedge fund guy who wandered into SpaceX late and got lucky. He is one of Elon Musk's oldest friends, one of his most loyal boardroom allies, and one of the earliest outside believers in the entire Musk industrial complex.

Gracias reportedly met Musk around 26 years ago through a mutual friend in Silicon Valley. At the time, Musk was not the richest person on Earth. He was a recently enriched internet entrepreneur, coming off Zip2 and heading toward PayPal. SpaceX did not exist. Tesla did not exist in anything close to its modern form. Starlink, Neuralink, xAI, Grok, and the idea of putting AI data centers in orbit were the stuff of science fiction.

Gracias saw something early. And unlike many people who have orbited Musk for a few years before burning out, falling out, or cashing out, Gracias stayed close. That loyalty is about to pay off to the tune of around $20 BILLION to Antonio Gracias personally…

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Friend Who Bet On Elon Before The World Did

Antonio Gracias was born around 1970 in Detroit, Michigan, to immigrant parents. His father was a neurosurgeon from India. His mother was a pharmacist from Spain who ran her own shop. His introduction to investing reportedly came in middle school, when his mother helped him buy $300 worth of Apple stock, shares he reportedly still holds.

Gracias attended Georgetown University, where he completed a joint-degree program through the Walsh School of Foreign Service. In 1993, he graduated with both a BSFS and an MSFS, concentrating in international economics. During his undergraduate years, he studied abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo and later returned to Japan for a fellowship with Nikko Securities. He then earned a JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998.

But instead of taking the traditional corporate law path, Gracias went into investing. While still a law student, he founded his first private equity firm, MG Capital, in 1995. That team eventually became the foundation for Valor Equity Partners, the Chicago-based firm he built into a major investment powerhouse.

Valor developed a reputation for backing complicated, operationally intense, high-growth companies. In other words, exactly the kind of companies Elon Musk likes to build.

The Musk Connection

Gracias was not just an investor in Musk's companies. Over time, he became a confidant and defender.

He backed Tesla. He backed SpaceX. Valor went on to invest across the broader Musk ecosystem, including SolarCity, Neuralink, and xAI. Musk, in turn, reportedly invested in at least one Valor fund.

Gracias served on Tesla's board from 2007 until 2021, including as lead independent director. That "independent" label became controversial because Gracias was so close to Musk personally and financially. Critics argued that he was too loyal to be considered truly independent. Musk likely saw that same loyalty as the entire point.

When Tesla was fighting for survival during the financial crisis, Gracias was there. When Tesla was slogging through the chaotic Model 3 production ramp, Gracias was there. When Musk needed allies in the boardroom, Gracias was there.

He remains a director at SpaceX.

Anthonio & Valor's Massive Windfall

As we stated earlier, when you add up the dozens of positions controlled by Valor thanks to its various pre-IPO investments, the firm controls a combined 7.3% stake in SpaceX. If SpaceX goes public at a $2 trillion valuation, that equates to around $146 billion.

A standard carry arrangement gives the investment firm around 20% of the profits after returning capital and clearing any applicable hurdles. So, if Valor's SpaceX stake is worth around $146 billion at IPO, and if Valor earns a standard 20% carry on that windfall, the carry pool could be roughly:

$128 billion x 20% = $30 billion

Gracias would not necessarily receive all of that. Other Valor partners would share in the economics. But as Valor's founder, CEO, and chief investment officer, he would presumably receive the largest piece.

If Gracias receives 80% of that carry pool, his personal payday would be roughly $23 billion.

That is on top of a pre-IPO fortune already estimated at around $4 billion.

So under this hypothetical, the SpaceX IPO could push Antonio Gracias's net worth into the $20 billion to $25 billion range, making him one of the richest private equity investors in America.

And again, this is not some random late-stage mark-up. This is the payoff from betting on Musk before SpaceX had reusable rockets, before Tesla was a trillion-dollar company, before Starlink became a global internet provider, and before Musk became the richest person in the world.

Congrats and good luck next month Antonio!