SpaceX kicked off what is expected to be a period of major IPOs in the United States , generating a new wave of billionaires for the Bloomberg and Forbes rankings.
A survey conducted by the consulting firm Sacra for The New York Times (NYT) estimates that the megalistings of SpaceX, Anthropic , and OpenAI should create more than 20 new billionaires, including current and former employees of these three companies, who will be able to sell their stakes on the market after the lock-up period ends.
Furthermore, a group of 16,000 people could become millionaires when these companies go public, according to Sacra. The consultancy did not assess the effects of these operations on investors' net worth.
SpaceX's IPO wasn't just profitable for Elon Musk, who became the first trillionaire in human history. The operation also turned Gwynne Shotwell into a billionaire—the president and COO of the rocket, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence (AI) company owns a stake valued at $2 billion, according to the consultancy.
Anthropic and OpenAI are also expected to produce a large number of millionaires and billionaires when they go public, considering the valuations they have achieved in recent years. OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in its most recent funding round in March, while Anthropic's valuation reached $965 billion in May.
One of those whose net worth is expected to soar is Greg Brockman, co-founder and chairman of OpenAI. Last month, while testifying in the lawsuit filed by Musk against the company, he revealed that his stake in the company is valued at around US$30 billion. Dario Amodei , co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, has an estimated net worth of approximately US$8 billion.
The creation of numerous new millionaires and billionaires through these three offerings is a consequence of the frenzy surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). Investors are willing to invest large sums and accept high valuations to avoid missing out on a technology that promises to be the new industrial revolution.
And companies are investing heavily to win this race. Names like Alphabet , Microsoft , Amazon , Meta , and Oracle are expected to invest a total of US$700 billion in 2026 alone. Data from the US government shows that monthly spending on data center construction reached US$50 billion in the United States in April.
The valuations of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic show just how much AI has inflated the technology market. When it went public in 2012, Meta, then called Facebook, raised $16 billion and was valued at $104 billion, a record at the time. Sheryl Sandberg, then COO of Mark Zuckerberg 's company, pocketed the equivalent of $73 million for her 0.07% stake.
According to Sacra's calculations, a stake of the same size in SpaceX, which remained a private company for 24 years, would give Sandberg a net worth of around US$1.2 billion.
