Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 center · 1 international
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- SpaceX’s June IPO was one of the largest ever, valuing the company at over $2 trillion and creating thousands of employee millionaires.
- Shares are being released in staged batches rather than all at once, with the first major tranche unlocking in early August.
- The stock has fallen well below its IPO price following a weak earnings report, limiting how much stock insiders can currently cash out.
- Long-time employees such as engineer Andre Lavoie, who joined in 2009 and holds shares now worth about $23m, are choosing to sell gradually rather than all at once.
Where they differ
- The BBC focuses on the human angle, telling Andre Lavoie’s personal story and his plans to fund an Italian hotel and brewery with sale proceeds.
- MarketWatch focuses on the mechanics of the lockup, emphasizing that the stock’s decline is directly limiting how many shares can be sold and specifying exact share totals (911.5 million released vs. 455.8 million still locked).
- The BBC includes broader financial context — SpaceX’s quarterly revenue, losses, and Musk’s Starlink comments — that MarketWatch’s brief item does not cover.
- The BBC quotes Musk’s claim of ‘several thousand’ new millionaires and cites a reported figure of 4,400, details absent from MarketWatch’s coverage.
SpaceX’s June stock market listing turned thousands of employees and early hires into paper millionaires, and this week the first big wave of those shares became eligible for sale. Up to 911.5 million shares were freed for trading, though roughly 455.8 million more remain locked up because the stock has slid well below its listing price, and long-time employees like engineer Andre Lavoie say they plan to sell gradually rather than all at once.
What did SpaceX’s listing actually create?
SpaceX went public on Nasdaq in June in what was described as the largest initial public offering in history, valuing the rocket and satellite company at more than $2 trillion. Founder Elon Musk told Fox News the listing likely made “several thousand” employees millionaires, including workers on the production line, not just engineers or executives. Reports put the number of new millionaires created by the IPO at around 4,400.
Unlike a typical newly listed company, SpaceX structured the release of employee and insider shares in stages rather than all at once. The first 20% batch became available on August 6, with further tranches scheduled to unlock through the rest of the year.
Who is Andre Lavoie and what is he doing with his shares?
Lavoie, 63, joined SpaceX in 2009 as an engineer designing the pressure tanks used in the company’s rockets. He was hired after being interviewed personally by Musk, and like many early start-up employees, part of his pay came in stock rather than cash. The roughly 200,000 shares he received are now worth about $23m ($17m). Rather than sell all at once, Lavoie says he intends to sell in intervals whenever he has the chance, telling the BBC that the stock’s volatility “keeps messing up my life plans” and that it’s safer to sell early and gradually than try to time the market. He plans to use proceeds to fund a hotel renovation he’s undertaking in Pontebba, in Italy’s Friuli region, and a small brewery, while also focusing on raising awareness of local air pollution with an environmental group.
Why did the stock drop right as shares became sellable?
The timing has been awkward. SpaceX released its first quarterly results as a public company this week, showing revenue nearly doubling year-over-year to $7.8bn ($5.8bn), while spending ballooned to $18.3bn — more than six times the prior year’s figure. The company posted a net loss of $143m for the quarter and $2bn for the first half of the year. Investors reacted poorly, partly over concerns about heavy spending tied to AI, and the stock fell 13.6% in a single day to $108.27 ($80.44) — below the original $135 listing price. MarketWatch notes this decline is directly why a large second tranche of roughly 455.8 million shares remains locked up rather than becoming immediately tradable alongside the first batch.
On the earnings call, Musk defended the business, arguing that people are underestimating Starlink, the satellite internet arm, which he said is currently the company’s only profitable segment. He suggested Starlink could eventually provide a majority of the world’s internet access.
What happens next for shareholders?
Individual employees and insiders now face a choice: sell shares as they become available, as Lavoie is doing, or hold on in hopes the stock recovers and climbs further. Additional batches of shares are due to unlock through the rest of the year, meaning more supply could hit the market even as the stock trades below its IPO price. Musk’s own fortune has already reflected the swings — his net worth briefly crossed the $1 trillion mark right after the IPO, making him the first-ever trillionaire, before slipping back below that threshold within weeks as shares cooled.
Why this matters beyond SpaceX employees
The episode illustrates a familiar pattern in Silicon Valley-style IPOs: a listing can create sudden, large paper wealth for rank-and-file staff, but the actual payout depends heavily on lockup structures and stock performance in the weeks after. SpaceX’s staged share-release schedule was designed to manage the flow of shares into the market gradually, but the post-earnings stock drop has already altered how much stock can be sold and when, showing how sensitive newly public employees’ wealth can be to a single earnings report.
Sources
Featured photo: U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)