SpaceX IPO to Mint Millionaire Welders as Experts Warn of Post-Listing Slumps

A welder who immigrated from Mexico holds stock worth roughly $880,000 ahead of next week’s SpaceX IPO. Juan Hernandez built the stake from a $10,000 equity grant he received in 2015.

SpaceX will sell 555.6 million shares at $135 each on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. The offer targets a $75 billion raise and values the rocket maker near $1.77 trillion, the largest IPO on record.

SpaceX IPO Turns Welders and Technicians Into Millionaires

Hernandez joined SpaceX as a contractor in 2015, earning $28 an hour, the Wall Street Journal reported. He later moved to a full-time role, received stock that vested over five years, and bought more shares through payroll deductions.

He sold part of the stake in 2020 to buy Texas property. Meanwhile, his remaining shares grew with the company. Hernandez now works at rival Blue Origin.

“It’s put me in a comfortable position for life,” Hernandez said in the WSJ profile.

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Justin Lopas, co-founder and COO of Base Power and a former SpaceX employee, said on X that most of the company’s welders and technicians will make six or seven figures.

More of these types of stories should be written about SpaceX’s IPO.Thousands of folks who would traditionally not had access to ownership in a company are about to have an awesome outcome.I had the good fortune to be able to a few hundred welders and technicians. Most will… https://t.co/kLIfJj32Qk

— Justin Lopas (@JLopas) June 7, 2026

Insiders still face lock-up periods, however, alongside Musk’s full share lock-up. Outside buyers face their own hurdles under Fidelity’s retail access rules.

Experts Warn IPO Hype Cuts Both Ways

Joshua Roberts, capital-markets correspondent at The Economist, cautioned in an interview that new listings often disappoint.

“IPOs tend to be a bad investment for ordinary investors. There’s a lot of hype around them…In general, IPOs tend to underperform the rest of the market over time…The best moment for the seller is not necessarily the best moment for the buyer,” said Roberts.

Research by University of Florida professor Jay Ritter indicates IPO firms tend to trail the broader market over the three years after listing.

Index providers also plan to fast-track the stock into benchmarks, in some cases within five days.

Therefore, index funds could buy shares while they remain volatile, even though S&P 500 exclusion rules keep SpaceX out of that index for now.

The $1.77 trillion valuation equals roughly 90 times annual sales, Roberts noted, and some analysts question the valuation.

Crypto markets, meanwhile, are already pricing SpaceX before listing.

For workers like Hernandez, the windfall is largely secure.

For new buyers, the coming weeks will show whether the largest IPO on record can defy the asset class’s weak track record.