Antonio Gracias, the founder of Valor Equity Partners and a longtime Elon Musk ally, controls a 7.3% stake in SpaceX, making him the second-largest holder after Musk himself that will earn the investor a giant windfall.
A board member at SpaceX, Gracias has backed the rocket company since 2008 and has also been involved with Tesla Inc. With SpaceX now going public, Valor and Gracias himself stand to earn huge returns on their investment, according to a Wednesday filing. If SpaceX seeks a valuation as high as $2 trillion in its IPO, as Bloomberg has previously reported, the holding by Gracias and Valor could be worth about $128 billion.
Musk himself is the only other shareholder disclosed with a stake greater than 5%, with a combined equity stake of 41% after adjusting for unvested options and unearned performance shares. Musk will continue to control the company after the IPO, according to the filing.
Valor Equity has helped Musk manage his companies for year, most recently getting deeply involved with xAI’s ranks. Jon Shulkin, another partner at the venture capital fund, took over as chief revenue officer for months while the startup tried to shore up sales.
Valor and Gracias have also helped xAI arrange financing for its compute access. Late last year, Valor sought to raise capital to buy chips and other data center equipment and then lease it back to xAI. It worked with Apollo Global Management to raise the debt for the fund. Those leases have given Valor a good return: xAI and its subsidiaries paid $885 million in 2025 and $857 million just in the first two months of this year. The company recorded about $9 billion in debt related to those arrangements as of March.
Other firms not listed in the filing are also expecting big pay days of their own. Early SpaceX investor 137 Ventures said in April that it owns more than 1% of the company, which would value its stake at more than $20 billion, based on SpaceX’s target valuation. Founders Fund and DFJ Growth also backed SpaceX in its first decade. Even some later backers like Sequoia Capital, which led a $1.9 billion financing round in 2020, anticipate multi- billion-dollar returns.
A board member at SpaceX, Gracias has backed the rocket company since 2008 and has also been involved with Tesla Inc. With SpaceX now going public, Valor and Gracias himself stand to earn huge returns on their investment, according to a Wednesday filing. If SpaceX seeks a valuation as high as $2 trillion in its IPO, as Bloomberg has previously reported, the holding by Gracias and Valor could be worth about $128 billion.
Musk himself is the only other shareholder disclosed with a stake greater than 5%, with a combined equity stake of 41% after adjusting for unvested options and unearned performance shares. Musk will continue to control the company after the IPO, according to the filing.
Valor Equity has helped Musk manage his companies for year, most recently getting deeply involved with xAI’s ranks. Jon Shulkin, another partner at the venture capital fund, took over as chief revenue officer for months while the startup tried to shore up sales.
Valor and Gracias have also helped xAI arrange financing for its compute access. Late last year, Valor sought to raise capital to buy chips and other data center equipment and then lease it back to xAI. It worked with Apollo Global Management to raise the debt for the fund. Those leases have given Valor a good return: xAI and its subsidiaries paid $885 million in 2025 and $857 million just in the first two months of this year. The company recorded about $9 billion in debt related to those arrangements as of March.
Other firms not listed in the filing are also expecting big pay days of their own. Early SpaceX investor 137 Ventures said in April that it owns more than 1% of the company, which would value its stake at more than $20 billion, based on SpaceX’s target valuation. Founders Fund and DFJ Growth also backed SpaceX in its first decade. Even some later backers like Sequoia Capital, which led a $1.9 billion financing round in 2020, anticipate multi- billion-dollar returns.
