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Space Exploration
- By ScriptOhio
- Open Discussion (Work-safe)
- 232 Replies
Just sayin': After SpaceX went public Mush became the world's 1st "Trillionaire"; however, a lot of SpaceX employees became "millionaires" too.
While Elon Musk may soon become a trillionaire, his rocket company’s market debut is set to change the lives of its current and former employees, too.
As Trevor Hise was getting ready to graduate from college in 2011, his parents wanted him to take what they saw as a stable job at General Electric. But Mr. Hise had landed an internship at a start-up he loved. Against his parents’ advice, he stayed for a full-time job at that young company for the next 12 years.
The start-up was Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Today, Mr. Hise has more than 100,000 SpaceX shares that he earned from his time working there. With the rocket maker expected to go public this week at $135 a share, Mr. Hise’s SpaceX stock is likely worth at least $13.5 million — a sum that has left him in disbelief.
“The magnitude of this has been ridiculous,” said the 37-year-old, who worked as a SpaceX launch engineer and now considers himself semiretired.
SpaceX’s journey to the stock market has been defined by a series of superlatives. It is the biggest-ever initial public offering of the most dominant space company by the world’s richest man. And it is set to unleash generational wealth if its shares soar in its trading debut at the whopping valuation of $1.77 trillion, five times the market capitalization of General Electric.
SpaceX’s I.P.O. is expected to make a lot of rich people even richer. First in the queue is Mr. Musk, 54, who is likely to become the world’s first trillionaire. His friends, along with Silicon Valley venture capitalists, private investment firms and others who put money into the company, are also set to reap billions.
But one group will gain life-changing wealth for the first time: SpaceX’s current and former employees. The company has 22,000 employees, and hundreds more left over the years. Some were hourly blue-collar workers who toiled at launch sites; others sat for days straight in once-windowless offices at SpaceX’s industrial complex in South Texas. For many, their work is about to pay off big through the stock that was part of their compensation.
More than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are likely to become millionaires in the I.P.O., according to an analysis by Hill.com, a San Francisco-based investment platform. Of those, about 400 are expected to earn $100 million or more.
With most I.P.O.s, “you’re usually only going to see the founders become billionaires,” said Andrew Benson, the founder and chief executive of Hill.com, which has facilitated the trading of private SpaceX shares. “It’s uncommon to have 400 people at that threshold” of $100 million, he added. “It speaks to the enormous wealth that’s being created here.”
A SpaceX spokesman did not return a request for comment.
Among SpaceX’s former employees, one winner is Gavin Petit, 42, who joined the company in 2012 as an engineer who oversaw launches. At the time, SpaceX awarded him several thousand shares on top of his $80,000 salary. Each share was worth $13.80, Mr. Petit said.
Over the years, Mr. Petit chose to take his company bonuses in more shares. That was considered risky because SpaceX’s rockets were unproven and sometimes failed. It was not clear his job would survive, Mr. Petit said. It also meant he had to stay at the company for five or more years until all his shares “vested” and were earned over time.
Mr. Petit sometimes sold his SpaceX shares in biannual “liquidity events,” where employees could sell their private shares to other buyers. Those sales helped him pay off his house in Denver. But he mostly held on to his stock and has more than 50,000 shares, enough to make him a millionaire several times over.
Mr. Petit, who left SpaceX in 2023 to work at Katalyst Space Technologies, a robotic spacecraft company, said he was not sure what he would do with his wealth or whether he would sell his shares. Like most companies that go public, SpaceX restricts when employees can sell after an I.P.O., according to its financial filings.
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continued
www.yahoo.com
"It was just another contract job for me at the time," he told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent in a broadcast exclusive interview.
Now, just over 10 years later, that leap of faith is paying off following the company's $75 billion initial public offering. Hernandez, who now works at Jeff Bezos-owned rocket startup Blue Origin, has roughly 6,500 SpaceX shares. On Friday, SpaceX stock closed at $160.95, valuing his holdings at $1,046,175.
SpaceX shares started trading on the Nasdaq late Friday morning under the ticker symbol SPCX, marking the long-awaited Wall Street debut of the rocket and satellite company.
Hernandez first heard about SpaceX from a friend who was hired as a welder there. He knew Hernandez's background and figured he'd be a good fit for the job.
"I thought in my head, I don't know what SpaceX is, but let's go," Hernandez said.
When SpaceX hired Hernandez in 2015, he said they offered him $10,000 worth of stock. At the time, he didn't think much of it. His other jobs, for which he was paid hourly, had never offered him stock before.
"It wasn't a big deal. I didn't know anything about it then," he told CBS News. "I didn't know it was gonna be this big, at this point."
Rising through the ranks
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.
.
continued
SpaceX’s I.P.O. Could Turn 4,400 Employees Into Millionaires
While Elon Musk may soon become a trillionaire, his rocket company’s market debut is set to change the lives of its current and former employees, too.
As Trevor Hise was getting ready to graduate from college in 2011, his parents wanted him to take what they saw as a stable job at General Electric. But Mr. Hise had landed an internship at a start-up he loved. Against his parents’ advice, he stayed for a full-time job at that young company for the next 12 years.
The start-up was Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Today, Mr. Hise has more than 100,000 SpaceX shares that he earned from his time working there. With the rocket maker expected to go public this week at $135 a share, Mr. Hise’s SpaceX stock is likely worth at least $13.5 million — a sum that has left him in disbelief.
“The magnitude of this has been ridiculous,” said the 37-year-old, who worked as a SpaceX launch engineer and now considers himself semiretired.
SpaceX’s journey to the stock market has been defined by a series of superlatives. It is the biggest-ever initial public offering of the most dominant space company by the world’s richest man. And it is set to unleash generational wealth if its shares soar in its trading debut at the whopping valuation of $1.77 trillion, five times the market capitalization of General Electric.
SpaceX’s I.P.O. is expected to make a lot of rich people even richer. First in the queue is Mr. Musk, 54, who is likely to become the world’s first trillionaire. His friends, along with Silicon Valley venture capitalists, private investment firms and others who put money into the company, are also set to reap billions.
But one group will gain life-changing wealth for the first time: SpaceX’s current and former employees. The company has 22,000 employees, and hundreds more left over the years. Some were hourly blue-collar workers who toiled at launch sites; others sat for days straight in once-windowless offices at SpaceX’s industrial complex in South Texas. For many, their work is about to pay off big through the stock that was part of their compensation.
More than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are likely to become millionaires in the I.P.O., according to an analysis by Hill.com, a San Francisco-based investment platform. Of those, about 400 are expected to earn $100 million or more.
With most I.P.O.s, “you’re usually only going to see the founders become billionaires,” said Andrew Benson, the founder and chief executive of Hill.com, which has facilitated the trading of private SpaceX shares. “It’s uncommon to have 400 people at that threshold” of $100 million, he added. “It speaks to the enormous wealth that’s being created here.”
A SpaceX spokesman did not return a request for comment.
Among SpaceX’s former employees, one winner is Gavin Petit, 42, who joined the company in 2012 as an engineer who oversaw launches. At the time, SpaceX awarded him several thousand shares on top of his $80,000 salary. Each share was worth $13.80, Mr. Petit said.
Over the years, Mr. Petit chose to take his company bonuses in more shares. That was considered risky because SpaceX’s rockets were unproven and sometimes failed. It was not clear his job would survive, Mr. Petit said. It also meant he had to stay at the company for five or more years until all his shares “vested” and were earned over time.
Mr. Petit sometimes sold his SpaceX shares in biannual “liquidity events,” where employees could sell their private shares to other buyers. Those sales helped him pay off his house in Denver. But he mostly held on to his stock and has more than 50,000 shares, enough to make him a millionaire several times over.
Mr. Petit, who left SpaceX in 2023 to work at Katalyst Space Technologies, a robotic spacecraft company, said he was not sure what he would do with his wealth or whether he would sell his shares. Like most companies that go public, SpaceX restricts when employees can sell after an I.P.O., according to its financial filings.
.
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.
continued
Former SpaceX welder becomes a millionaire after historic IPO
Juan Hernandez, a former SpaceX employee, owns 6,500 company shares. On the first day of public trading, his wealth ballooned by $1,046,175.
www.yahoo.com
Former SpaceX welder becomes a millionaire after historic IPO
Before Juan Hernandez became a welder at SpaceX, he had never heard of the company."It was just another contract job for me at the time," he told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent in a broadcast exclusive interview.
Now, just over 10 years later, that leap of faith is paying off following the company's $75 billion initial public offering. Hernandez, who now works at Jeff Bezos-owned rocket startup Blue Origin, has roughly 6,500 SpaceX shares. On Friday, SpaceX stock closed at $160.95, valuing his holdings at $1,046,175.
SpaceX shares started trading on the Nasdaq late Friday morning under the ticker symbol SPCX, marking the long-awaited Wall Street debut of the rocket and satellite company.
Hernandez first heard about SpaceX from a friend who was hired as a welder there. He knew Hernandez's background and figured he'd be a good fit for the job.
"I thought in my head, I don't know what SpaceX is, but let's go," Hernandez said.
When SpaceX hired Hernandez in 2015, he said they offered him $10,000 worth of stock. At the time, he didn't think much of it. His other jobs, for which he was paid hourly, had never offered him stock before.
"It wasn't a big deal. I didn't know anything about it then," he told CBS News. "I didn't know it was gonna be this big, at this point."
Rising through the ranks
.
.
.
continued
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WR Bryson Rodgers (National Champion, transfer to USF)
- By brodybuck21
- Buckeye Alumni
- 177 Replies
Skull Session: Jeremiah Smith is College Football’s WR1, Bryson Rodgers Still Hates The Team Up North and Kirk Herbstreit’s Cameos Cost a Fortune
Jeremiah Smith is college football's No. 1 wide receiver, Bryson Rodgers is a Buckeye for life and Kirk Herbstreit's Cameos cost a fortune.www.elevenwarriors.com
BUCKEYE FOR LIFE. Bryson Rodgers is not one of ESPN’s top wide receivers in 2026, but he is one of my favorite pass catchers entering the college football season, if only because of a social media post he made Wednesday.
Even after transferring from Ohio State to USF this offseason, Rodgers still hates That Team Up North.
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Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye.
The cut of his jib...I like it
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2028 PA TE Luke Sohyda (Verbal Offer)
- By pnuts34
- Football Recruiting
- 0 Replies
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Class: 2028
Position: TE
School: Canonsburg (PA) Canon-McMillan
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 250 lbs
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Height: 6'4"
Weight: 250 lbs
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2028 TN TE Wright Martin (Verbal Offer)
- By pnuts34
- Football Recruiting
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School: Nashville (TN) Christ Presbyterian Academy
Height: 6'2"
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Height: 6'2"
Weight: 245 lbs
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2028 CA DB Troy Bishop (Verbal Offer)
- By pnuts34
- Football Recruiting
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Position: DB
School: Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 195 lbs
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Position: DB
School: Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 195 lbs
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2028 GA LB Jay Schell (Verbal Offer)
- By pnuts34
- Football Recruiting
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Position: LB
School: Rabun Gap (GA) Nacoochee
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 215 lbs
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