A 27-year-old Virginia mariner put 10% of her paycheck into SpaceX for 2 years. Now it’s going public — and she won't say what her shares are worth

This includes everyone from Rapper 2 Chainz and former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to an unknown number of current and former SpaceX employees — including 27-year-old mariner Maryellyn Musselman, who was tasked with cleaning up floating rocket junk from the company’s many launches.

Insiders who leaned in are now set to cash in

During her tenure at the firm, Musselman took advantage of the option to convert a portion of her paycheck (in her case, 10%) into SpaceX equity, which she held onto rather than re-selling via secondary insider sales.

She remains tight-lipped about what her stake, which also includes shares she received as part of her compensation, amounted to after two years with the company — or, what it might be worth come Friday.

She did confirm with The Wall Street Journal, however, that she hasn’t yet decided how quickly after the IPO she will release her holdings, the money from which she intends to use to open her own business, like others interviewed by the outlet earlier in June.

Predictions for the IPO and future stock valuations

Some experts purport that a $5,000 investment on Friday could realistically be worth up to $8,745 in five years’ time. Others expect that, given the company’s speculative and arguably overvalued nature, some early public investors could be in for “an expensive lesson” down the line.

As one Reddit user aptly wrote in a recent discussion about the IPO, “No one knows; SpaceX could rocket just from hype alone or its financial reality might hit it on day one.”

The IPO filing itself contained some revelatory financials, including for SpaceX’s AI arm, xAI, which reported operating losses of $6.4 billion last year. It only brought in $3.2 billion in revenue — pretty standard for AI, though still cause for concern for those who worry about the sector’s potential future profitability and questionable returns on billions in capital expenditures.

Among the aforementioned early investors are some of the big banks’ and funds’ most esteemed (read: wealthy) clients, who are already at the front of the line for shares. A whopping $500 million in fees is anticipated to be on the table as a result of the transactions.

Shareholding staffers include baristas, technicians

As noted by the WSJ, and exemplified by Musselman, it’s not just desk workers who received SpaceX stock awards over the years, but also other salaried staff, ranging from baristas to welders. But, it will be the executives, such as SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Board Member Antonio Gracias, who stand to gain the most, with billions in estimated share valuations.

One analyst who appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box last week called the IPO “one of the biggest liquidity events ever,” not only elevating Musk to the status of the world’s first trillionaire, but creating “several new billionaires and countless millionaires” as well. For reference, a 1% stake, at the $1.7+ trillion valuation the company is expected to hit after this round of financing, will be equivalent to $17 billion.