Elon Musk's best friend who saved Tesla from bankruptcy could now make over $100 billion from SpaceX’s IPO
Elon Musk might be a divisive character and hated by some, but he's had a pretty constant supporter in the form of Antonio Gracias. Having saved Tesla in its early days after it teetered on bankruptcy, Gracias has been a groomsman at Kimbal Musk's wedding and been on several vacations with the world's richest man. That's set to pay off in buckets, as the upcoming SpaceX IPO could see Gracias win big.
Gracias is already worth an impressive $4.3 billion, mainly due to his being the founder and CEO of Chicago-based growth equity firm Valor Equity Partners. It's said that Gracias met Elon Musk through a mutual friend in 2000, with Valor becoming one of Tesla's first institutional investors in 2005.
He was notably a member of Tesla’s Board of Directors from 2007 to 2021, and it's even said that he's known to have slept on the factory floor to assist in working through manufacturing and supply chain issues.
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There was also a short-lived stint as part of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, where concerns were raised about potential conflicts of interest over his involvement with the government and private businesses at the same time.
Still, Gracias is a regular by Musk's side, also having sat on the boards of SpaceX, SolarCity, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. Fortune notes that he's invested in nearly every one of Musk's companies.
While Musk seems destined to skyrocket his own wealth toward that unheard-of $1 trillion price tag, thanks to the upcoming SpaceX IPO, it sounds like he's taking Gracias along for the ride.
Fortune says that his Valor entities hold more than 500 million shares of SpaceX Class A stock, which equates to around 7.3% of the whole company. This makes Gracias SpaceX's second-largest individual shareholder after Musk himself.
With SpaceX targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation, Gracias' own piece of the pie could be worth $90 billion. If it reaches $2 trillion (which is entirely possible), this would soar past $140 billion. The outlet suggests that either way, he'll be one of the 50 wealthiest people in the world.
More than this, Valor signed a lease with an xAI subsidiary called CTC in October 2025. As SpaceX acquired xAI in February 2026, it's another way for Gracias to make more money. CTC signed a second lease in January and a third in April.
These three are said to have earned Valor a cool $20 billion, although the latest filing suggests xAI was plagued with debt and needed SpaceX to step in. We're warned that once SpaceX goes public, public shareholders will inherit billions in obligations like the Valor one – struck when it was still private.
Nell Minow, a chair of ValueEdge Advisors, called the Valor leases 'deeply troubling' and claimed
that SpaceX wants "the access to capital of a public company" but "the control of a private company."
Gracias himself will be seated on the compensation and nominating committee, while Musk has lobbied state legislators to weaken shareholder protections.
Under the SpaceX charter, Musk can only be removed from power by those holding Class B stock. Ironically, the Class B stock is something Musk holds the majority of.