Who will benefit most from SpaceX’s IPO? Mostly Elon, and a few from his inner circle

As SpaceX’s S-1 prepares to go public, some shocking revelations are coming to light, but Elon Musk’s complete control of the company likely isn’t one of them.

Perhaps the most surprising of all is Elon Musk’s outlandish provision that would add up to an additional billion shares to his already large company-controlled cash pile if Mars were to be populated by a million people (yes, really). It’s also quite disingenuous. Incidentally, Musk currently controls these shares and can vote them.

But the addition of 1 billion super-voting shares is immaterial to the creation of this company, as Mr. Musk is by far the company’s largest shareholder.

He owns just under 850 million Class A shares, which are entitled to one vote per share, and nearly 5.6 billion more Class B shares, which are entitled to 10 votes per share. That includes 1 billion shares for the 1 million people living in SpaceX’s corporate city colony on Mars.

Science fiction aside, if SpaceX’s IPO is a success and the stock continues to do well, the few people who will benefit the most are the 5% shareholders. These people own at least 5% of the company.

The company has not yet disclosed how many shares it will sell or at what price, but rumors are that the IPO will raise a hefty $75 billion, giving it a post-money valuation of $1.7 trillion. With these numbers, even a 1% stake would be worth $17 billion.

Here’s an overview of who owns what:

Elon Musk, Founder, CEO, CTO, Chairman. Total number of SpaceX shares held: Over 6.42 billion shares.

Antonio Gracias, Investor and Director. Total number of SpaceX shares held: over 503.4 million shares

Mr. Gracias is the founder and CEO of Valor Management, a longtime friend of Mr. Musk, and a board member and investor in Musk supporters. He was a member of Tesla’s board of directors from its early days through the years after its IPO. He also served on the board of Musk’s solar company SolarCity during its controversial sale to Tesla. He has supported Musk’s Neuralink, which includes The Boring Company, and has served on its board of directors. He was also one of the financiers who agreed to finance Musk’s failed hostile takeover of OpenAI in early 2025 for $97 billion.

Luke Nosek, Investor and Director. Total number of SpaceX shares held: Approximately 33 million shares.

Mr. Nosek is a co-founder of the venture capital firm Gigafund and a member of the PayPal Mafia. Nosek joined Peter Thiel in the early days of Founders Fund and led Founders’ first investment in SpaceX. He took the board seat at that time and has served as a director ever since. Gigafund also backs other mask companies, The Boring Company and Neuralink.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX COO. Total number of SpaceX shares held: Approximately 12.6 million shares.

Shotwell has been with SpaceX since 2002 and served as COO since 2008. She is a genius aerospace engineer who runs her day-to-day operations. In another era, if the majority founders had been different, someone like Shotwell would have been given co-founder status and perhaps held a larger stake in the company. However, it is hard to say that her salary is low. For example, in 2025 she received a large tranche of restricted stock units, bringing her total compensation for the year to $85.8 million.

Brett Johnsen, CFO. Total number of SpaceX shares held: Approximately 9.6 million shares.

Brett Johnsen has been SpaceX’s CFO since 2011. Prior to joining SpaceX, he served as a CFO and finance executive in the semiconductor industry.

Ira Ehrenpreis, Investor and Director. Total number of SpaceX shares held: 809,050 shares.

Ehrenpreis is the founder and managing member of VC firm DBL Partners. He is on SpaceX’s board of directors
He has held the position since February 2026 and also serves on Tesla’s board of directors.

Randy Grain, Investor and Director. Total number of SpaceX shares held: 277,800 shares.

Glein is co-founder and managing partner of DFJ Growth.

Approximately 400 other VCs. SpaceX has raised about $30 billion in private funding from hundreds of investors, according to PitchBook estimates. Other companies don’t have large stakes as reported, but then again, even a small portion of the company should be worth billions of dollars at debut.

However, the company shared the price these investors paid for their shares. Series A investors paid $1 per share. Series F investors paid $7.50 and Series N end investors paid $270 per share.