Key facts
- Early SpaceX engineer Andre Lavoie plans to sell his stock after the company's IPO.
- Lavoie's 200,000 shares are now valued at approximately $23 million.
- SpaceX's IPO, the largest in history, has reportedly created thousands of employee millionaires.
- SpaceX shares will be released in stages starting August 6.
- The company reported nearly doubled revenue but a net loss in its first quarterly results as a public company.
Andre Lavoie, who joined SpaceX in 2009 as an engineer and was compensated partly with stock, plans to sell his shares following the company's recent initial public offering. Lavoie's 200,000 shares are now valued at approximately $23 million, and he intends to sell them incrementally. SpaceX founder Elon Musk indicated that the IPO likely created thousands of millionaires among employees, including those on the production line.
SpaceX shares are being released in stages, with the first 20% becoming available on August 6, followed by subsequent batches. While Lavoie plans to cash in, some shareholders may opt to hold their shares for potential future gains.
The company's IPO in June was the largest in history, valuing SpaceX at over $2 trillion. In its first earnings report as a public company, SpaceX announced its quarterly revenue had nearly doubled to $7.8 billion year-over-year, though spending also increased significantly to $18.3 billion. The firm reported a net loss of $143 million for the quarter ending in June and a $2 billion loss for the first half of the year.
Musk expressed optimism about the satellite internet service Starlink, predicting it could eventually provide the majority of the world's internet. Lavoie plans to use proceeds from his stock sales to fund a hotel renovation in Italy and a brewery, and also intends to raise awareness about air pollution.
Some analysts have raised concerns about SpaceX's valuation, suggesting it may be overvalued due to its ties to AI ventures like xAI. They caution that high valuations for AI-linked companies could be unsustainable. However, Ron Epstein, an aerospace analyst, believes recent stock price fluctuations are more indicative of broader market trends than SpaceX's fundamental performance. He emphasized that SpaceX is more than just an AI company, highlighting its success in reducing the cost of reaching orbit with its Falcon 9 rocket.