Former SpaceX welder becomes a millionaire after historic IPO

Before Juan Hernandez became a welder at SpaceX, he had never heard of the company. 

“It was just another contract job for me at the time,” he told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent in a broadcast exclusive interview.

Now, just over 10 years later, that leap of faith is paying off following the company’s $75 billion initial public offering. Hernandez, who now works at Jeff Bezos-owned rocket startup Blue Origin, has roughly 6,500 SpaceX shares. On Friday, SpaceX stock closed at $160.95, valuing his holdings at $1,046,175. 

SpaceX shares started trading on the Nasdaq late Friday morning under the ticker symbol SPCX, marking the long-awaited Wall Street debut of the rocket and satellite company. 

Hernandez first heard about SpaceX from a friend who was hired as a welder there. He knew Hernandez’s background and figured he’d be a good fit for the job.

“I thought in my head, I don’t know what SpaceX is, but let’s go,” Hernandez said. 

When SpaceX hired Hernandez in 2015, he said they offered him $10,000 worth of stock. At the time, he didn’t think much of it. His other jobs, for which he was paid hourly, had never offered him stock before. 

“It wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t know anything about it then,” he told CBS News. “I didn’t know it was gonna be this big, at this point.”

During his ten-year run at SpaceX, Hernandez worked as a welder, preparing rockets for takeoff by building the structures that lifted them onto the launch pad and the infrastructure that held them in place. He eventually rose through the ranks to become a supervisor.

He said offering employees a stake in the company helps them feel they have skin in the game and pushes them to succeed.

“They will perform a lot better because, I mean, it is, it’s their company as well,” he said.

Even through the life-changing event, he’s staying humble.

As an immigrant, Hernandez said he was taught to work hard, something his newfound wealth won’t get in the way of. He said he plans to keep working and pass on the lessons he’s learned to his children.

He’s now teaching his three kids, including his 16-year-old daughter, how to invest based on what he learned owning SpaceX stock. His daughter is already a stakeholder in Meta and a handful of other companies. 

“She’s a little entrepreneur herself,” he said.

If given the chance to talk to Musk, Hernandez said he’d thank him for helping him realize a dream he didn’t know he had.

“He made it a possibility for somebody like us, you know, the cook or … electrician,” he said. “He’s making all these lives much better and meaningful for their families as well.”