Antonio Gracias and his firm, Valor Equity Partners, are the second-largest shareholders in SpaceX.
Antonio Gracias, founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Valor Equity Partners, has collaborated with Elon Musk for over two decades.
A key takeaway is that Antonio Gracias and his company, Valor Equity Partners, hold 6.7% of SpaceX's Class A common stock, a stake valued at $68 billion, making him the second-largest shareholder after Elon Musk.
The upcoming SpaceX IPO could propel Elon Musk's net worth past the trillion-dollar mark. Following closely in reaping immense wealth is his close friend and long-time investor, Antonio Gracias, whose career has centered on consistently backing Musk.
Company IPO filings reveal that following SpaceX's official market debut this Friday, Gracias and Valor Equity Partners will hold 6.7% of the Class A shares, representing a stake worth $68 billion. This positions Gracias as the second-largest shareholder in SpaceX, trailing only Musk in ownership.
Now 55, Gracias founded Valor as a private equity firm initially focused on distressed asset investments. His early bets on Tesla Motors (TSLA) and SpaceX yielded substantial returns, and he has maintained a close relationship with Musk since.
When Musk's salute at President Trump's inauguration previously sparked public controversy, Gracias publicly defended him last year on the social platform X, stating: "I've worked side-by-side with Elon for over 20 years. His intentions are pure, and his life's goal is to benefit humanity."
Gracias has consistently stood by Musk through challenges, often taking a hands-on, private investor approach to help resolve operational hurdles at Musk's ventures, including Tesla Motors and the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, now X. SpaceX filings show he joined its board in 2010, served on the Tesla Motors board for 14 years, and in May of this year also joined the boards of Musk's neuroscience company Neuralink and tunneling venture The Boring Company.
During Musk's time in Washington, Gracias voluntarily worked in the Trump administration's Office of American Innovation, leading a cost-cutting initiative for the Social Security Administration. This move later faced complaints from internal whistleblowers and scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers.
Gracias declined to comment through a spokesperson.
The relationship between Gracias and Musk extends far beyond business. Reports indicate the two have socialized privately together. Court documents show they have vacationed with their families in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Spain, the Caribbean, and Africa. Court records also confirm Gracias served as the best man at the wedding of Musk's brother, Kimbal, and has privately lent money to Musk.
Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias appeared together on stage, with a background chart titled "Number of New Non-Citizen Social Security Numbers Issued."
From Steakhouse Chains to Space Ventures
Gracias was born in Detroit to a Spanish mother and a father from Goa, India. He credits his mother with planting the seeds of investing: in high school, while working at her mall lingerie store, she gave him $300 to buy Apple stock.
In an interview at a Los Angeles tech industry summit this March, he recalled: "I watched how she treated people, how she was kind to every customer who walked in. I learned from that that the true core of a great entrepreneur is treating employees well and caring about your impact on the community."
Gracias attended Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service before earning a law degree from the University of Chicago. While still in law school in 1995, he founded his first firm, MG Capital, focused on acquiring and operating struggling manufacturing businesses.
Around this time, Gracias met investor David Sacks, who later introduced him to Musk. Sacks later worked at the payments startup Confinity (a precursor to PayPal), and Gracias also invested in that company.
Confinity soon merged with a competing company founded by Musk. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion, minting a group of young founders known as the "PayPal Mafia."
That same year, Gracias raised Valor's first $1 billion private equity fund. Valor's early focus was acquiring and revitalizing traditional consumer businesses, including ski resorts, Sizzler steakhouse chains, and Little Caesars pizza franchises. In 2006, the fund invested $2 million in Tesla Motors, where Musk was an investor and chairman. In 2008, Valor made its investment in SpaceX.
Public filings show that at Tesla Motors' IPO in 2010, Valor held a 5.25% stake. Calculations based on the IPO price valued that stake at approximately $83.5 million.
In the years since, Gracias personally or through Valor funds has invested in all of Musk's ventures, including Neuralink, The Boring Company, the Twitter acquisition, and the AI firm xAI.
Unwavering and Unconditional Support
The business collaboration is a two-way street. SpaceX filings disclose that xAI, which merged into SpaceX this past February, has a contract with Valor to lease over $20 billion in computing hardware. Over the past two years, Valor has also paid the social platform X, another SpaceX business, $1 million annually to access its application programming interface (API).
Disclosures show Valor currently has 125 employees and managed approximately $59 billion in compliant assets as of the end of 2025, a significant increase from its $14.3 billion in assets under management three years prior.
Valor also holds stakes in several other notable startups, including defense tech company Anduril, computing firm Crusoe, prediction market platform Polymarket, and biopharma company Harmony Biosciences (from whose board Gracias stepped down only this year). Last year, Gracias, through his family foundation, funded a recapitalization of the struggling psychedelics research company Lykos Therapeutics, which aims to adapt recreational controlled substances for clinical use.
While Valor is headquartered in Chicago, Gracias now resides in Miami. He has become more publicly visible in recent years, speaking at industry conferences and being a regular guest on the popular venture capital podcast "All-In," hosted by a group that includes David Sacks, who considers Gracias an honorary core member.
Musk has also publicly valued their friendship on multiple occasions.
Last week, Musk posted on X: "Antonio's equity comes from two decades of countless investments and unconditional, full-throated support even when SpaceX was on the verge of bankruptcy. No one could ask for a better best friend. He is an exceptional human being."
Comments