Elon Musk. Foto REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
He traditionally responded briefly to a post on social network X, which included a photo of a luxury yacht with Bugatti cars. “SpaceX was less than 10 people back then. We didn’t even have office furniture,” he wrote. (“SpaceX had less than 10 employees back then. The company didn’t even have office furniture.”
Wealth through participation in company growth
It all started when X user va20531 responded to a post with a video of a superyacht carrying Bugatti cars, questioning the popular thesis that large fortunes arise solely from government subsidies, benefits or access to public funds.
As examples, he cited the stories of SpaceX employees who gained substantial wealth through corporate shares.
Among them – a welder of Mexican origin, whose share in the company after the end of the vesting period, according to him, reached about $ 880 thousand. Also mentioned is a 27-year-old sailor, who regularly sent part of his earnings to buy shares in the company, and an engineer, whose stake in the IPO at a notional valuation of $ 135 per share could be worth about $ 28 million.
An important trend in the labor market
The story reflects one of the key trends in today’s technology economy. Companies are increasingly using options and stock as a tool to motivate staff, allowing employees to share in the growth of business value.
This approach is particularly prevalent in high-growth technology companies, where a significant portion of future compensation is tied not to salary but to potential growth in the company’s capitalization.
For employees, this means an opportunity to earn income from business growth, and for companies, it means a way to retain skilled professionals without dramatically increasing current labor costs.
SpaceX as an example of a new model of capital accumulation
While the stories in the publication are not independently verified and reflect the author’s position, they align with a broader trend in the U.S. tech market.
As SpaceX’s valuation has grown, many of the company’s employees have been able to significantly increase their wealth through stock ownership programs. A similar mechanism has previously contributed to the emergence of thousands of millionaires among the employees of major Silicon Valley technology companies.
Economists note that such a model redistributes part of the value created from investors and founders to employees who are directly involved in business development. However, the size of such an effect depends on the terms of granting shares, the dynamics of the company’s valuation and the possibility of their subsequent sale.
The role of employees in value creation
The discussion actually touches on the broader question of the nature of modern wealth. Advocates of technological entrepreneurship see employee participation in the equity of companies as an example of value creation through innovation and business growth.
Critics point out that even such companies often operate in an environment where government contracts, regulation, and indirect government support play an important role.
The SpaceX controversy therefore reflects a broader debate about the role that entrepreneurship, investment, capital markets and public policy play in the formation of large fortunes.
