A Mexican immigrant who worked for SpaceX since 2015 became an instant millionaire overnight after SpaceX’s historic IPO debut. Former welder Juan Hernandez is among hundreds of immigrants who became instant millionaires after the IPO’s record-setting debut.
It’s estimated that 4,400 SpaceX employees are instant millionaires after the IPO debut on June 12.
Among them are cafeteria workers who accepted lower pay in exchange for SpaceX stocks. Hernandez immigrated from Mexico and took a welding contractor job at SpaceX earning $28 per hour in 2015.
SpaceX gave Hernandez $10,000 worth of stock at the time. Over the years, Hernandez advanced from welding rockets to building the structures that lifted rockets onto the launch pad to being a supervisor. Today, his shares are worth just under $1 million.
“It was just another contract job for me at the time,” Hernandez told a reporter. “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.”
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were furious last week about @elonmusk becoming a trillionaire…
Here’s the part they’re ignoring.
Juan Hernandez immigrated from Mexico, worked as a $28/hour welder at SpaceX, got 6,500 shares, and yesterday became a millionaire, along with… pic.twitter.com/F2EBN1IgXR
— Tom Leonard (@TomLeonard28) June 16, 2026
“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said of the $10,000 worth of stocks. “I didn’t know anything about it then. I didn’t know it was gonna be this big, at this point.”
“As an immigrant, you know, I was always taught just to work hard, do the best I can at what I do,” Hernandez said.
Launch engineer Trevor Hise, who joined SpaceX as a college graduate, held over 100,000 SpaceX shares, which are worth $16 million today.
“The magnitude of this has been ridiculous,” he said.
Former SpaceX engineer J. André Lavoie, 63, holds SpaceX shares worth over $28 million. Lavoie plans to use his money to renovate a hotel he purchased.
Hernandez and the others don’t have the money in hand just yet. They can’t sell their shares during the lock-up period (usually 90 days to 180 days). The stock price would tumble if they all sold their shares at the same time.
SpaceX stock opened at $135 on June 12 and surged to $220 in pre-trading on Tuesday, June 16.