▲ A SpaceX rocket launch
As U.S. aerospace company SpaceX prepares to go public on the 12th, approximately 4,400 of its employees are set to join the ranks of millionaires.
Founder Elon Musk is expected to become the world's first "trillionaire."
The New York Times (NYT) reported on June 10 (local time) that the lives of a group of current and former employees are expected to change as SpaceX proceeds with its initial public offering (IPO).
SpaceX currently employs 22,000 people.
Hundreds of employees have also left the company over the past few years.
Investment platform Hill.com analyzed that more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are highly likely to become millionaires.
Among them, about 400 are expected to earn more than $100 million (approximately 150 billion won).
Some of these individuals were hourly production workers at rocket launch sites, while others were people who once spent days sitting in old offices that didn't even have windows.
Employee Trevor Heis is one of them.
Before graduating from college, he was advised by his parents to join a stable company like General Electric (GE).
However, he chose to intern at the startup SpaceX, which he loved, and later joined as a full-time employee despite his parents' objections, working there for 12 years.
He holds over 100,000 company shares, which are expected to be worth at least $13.5 million (approximately 20.6 billion won) after the listing.
The SpaceX IPO is set to set several records.
It is expected to be the largest ever in terms of both offering size and market capitalization.
If it achieves a market capitalization of $1.77 trillion on its first day of trading, it would be five times that of GE.
Founder Elon Musk is highly likely to become the world's first trillionaire, and his friends, Silicon Valley venture capitalists, private equity firms, and investors are also expected to reap billions of dollars in profits.
Andrew Benson, founder and CEO of Hill.com, said, "In most IPOs, it is common for only the founders to become billionaires," adding, "It is very rare for 400 people to hit a jackpot of over $100 million, and this shows the immense wealth that SpaceX is creating."
Not all SpaceX employees hold company stock.
Some employees did not see a high possibility of an IPO because CEO Musk had previously expressed reluctance toward going public.
There were even rumors that some employees traded their company stock for Chili's restaurant gift cards in the early days of SpaceX.
It is reported that those employees now regret that decision.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.