SpaceX's IPO Turned Thousands of Assembly Line Workers Into Millionaires, Musk Says

Elon Musk says SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO has turned thousands of its production line employees into millionaires — and the number might be higher than anyone expected. In an appearance on The Sean Hannity Show Wednesday, Musk was asked about a former SpaceX welder whose company stock, granted during employment, was now worth over $1 million following SpaceX’s June IPO.

“It’s not just one welder. It’s thousands of production line employees,” Musk told Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who was guest-hosting the show. “If they joined the company early enough, the stock they hold is likely worth over a million dollars now.”

SpaceX went public on June 12 at $135 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly $2 trillion. Before the IPO, Hill Markets founder Andrew Benson predicted the listing would create about 4,400 millionaires and more than 400 centi-millionaires — employees holding stock worth over $100 million. The stock briefly traded above $200 in the days after listing before settling back to around $148.

Musk, whose personal wealth briefly crossed $1 trillion on paper after the SpaceX IPO, reiterated his long-standing philosophy of broad-based stock ownership. “I’ve always believed that everyone in the company should get company stock, so they can share in the upside as the company grows,” he said. “It also aligns interests really well. The better the company does, the better the employees do.”

A former SpaceX employee told Business Insider that the company grants stock options upon hiring and issues additional awards during annual performance reviews and promotions. SpaceX typically holds two private liquidity events per year, allowing employees to sell some of their holdings back to the company or to outside investors before any public listing.

Beyond the wealth creation, the interview offered a rare glimpse into SpaceX’s long-term ambitions. Musk said he wants the company to establish a base on the moon within a decade and transport “thousands, even tens of thousands” of people there. The Starship system, he explained, is being designed to eventually carry tens of thousands of tons of cargo to the lunar surface — enough to build a real city.

“We want to take things that are in science fiction and make them real, not just leave them as fantasy,” Musk said.

If everything goes according to plan, Musk expects SpaceX to land the first humans on Mars in roughly five years, and to have thousands of people on the red planet within 10 to 12 years.

There’s also a political angle to the SpaceX windfall. Company president and COO Gwynne Shotwell and her husband have donated approximately $300 million worth of SpaceX stock to the “Trump Accounts” program — a government initiative launched by the Trump administration that opens a savings account with a $1,000 deposit for every child born in the United States between early 2025 and the end of 2028.