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Former SpaceX welder who immigrated from Mexico one of 4400 millionaires after historic IPO

June 13, 2026 | | Print Article

A former SpaceX rocket welder has become a millionaire thanks to the company’s initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market.

SpaceX began trading on the stock market this Friday as SPCX. It closed later in the day at $160.95, making former welder Juan Hernandez an instant millionaire.

Hernandez began work at SpaceX around 10 years ago as a simple welding contractor, he told CBS News in an interview:

Over the years at SpaceX, Hernandez went from “preparing rockets for takeoff by building the structures that lifted them onto the launch pad and the infrastructure that held them in place” to being a supervisor.

“It was just another contract job for me at the time,” he said. “A friend that I met at another job ended up in SpaceX, and then he called me. I told him, I don’t even know what SpaceX is, but let’s go.”

When he was hired in 2015, SpaceX gave him $10,000 worth of stock.

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“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about it then. I didn’t know it was gonna be this big, at this point.”

In addition to the stock he’s bought since, his holdings are now worth $1,046,175.

“As an immigrant, you know, I was always taught just to work hard, do the best I can at what I do,” Hernandez said.

Asked if he feels like he’s achieved the American dream, he told CBS News that he has indeed.

“Yeah, I mean, but there’s no reason to stop,” he said.

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Correct, because in the United States, there is no limit to the success one can achieve.

Hernandez isn’t alone. According to Moneywise, “more than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees” likely became millionaires when SpaceX went public, including even SpaceX cafeteria workers.

Take, for instance, launch engineer Trevor Hise, who joined SpaceX right after college. In the 12 years he’s been there, Hise has accumulated over 100,000 shares, making him worth $16 million today.

“The magnitude of this has been ridiculous,” he said.

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Then there’s former SpaceX engineer J. André Lavoie, a 63-year-old whose shares are now worth over $28 million.

“Lavoie plans to use the funds to renovate a hotel he purchased and is considering helping others in the community transition from heating their homes with burning wood to cleaner heating source,” according to Fox Business.

“I don’t want to just die with a pile of money in the bank,” he said.

The media also spoke with 27-year-old Maryellen Musselman, who reportedly joined SpaceX in 2022 as a ship worker who’d retrieve “rocket parts from the company’s launches that splashed down off the coast of Florida.”

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“Musselman used 10% of her pay to purchase additional shares during the two years she worked at SpaceX and said that while she’s unsure of how quickly she’ll look to sell, saying it’ll likely be ‘an 11th-hour decision,'” according to Fox Business.

Of course, most SpaceX employees are keeping their new fortunes to themselves. One anonymous employee told Fox Business that SpaceX’s IPO is “a beautiful thing” and that CEO “Elon [Musk] is the best.”

Vivek Saxena
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