00:00Today on Forbes, Gwynne Shotwell rides SpaceX to billion-dollar fortune.
00:07Tesla's share price may be cratering as billionaire CEO Elon Musk pursues his side hustle of chainsawing
00:14the federal workforce.
00:15But investors still believe in his rocket company, SpaceX.
00:20And that's made Gwynne Shotwell a billionaire.
00:24Musk's longtime lieutenant at SpaceX holds a 0.3% stake in the company, Forbes estimates,
00:30based on accounts of her stock compensation from investors and early employees.
00:35That stake is worth $1.2 billion after the private company's valuation hit $350 billion
00:42in December in a sale of insider shares.
00:46Shotwell declined to comment on Forbes' estimates.
00:49For Shotwell, who is 61 years old, it's a rich reward for the gamble she took when
00:54she joined SpaceX in 2002 as employee number 11, tasked with leading sales of Musk's
01:01as-yet-unbuilt rocket.
01:03At the time, the Northwestern-trained mechanical engineer was going through a divorce with
01:08two young children to care for, and she hesitated to leave a safe position at a small rocketmaker.
01:14After all, she was the space systems director at an established spacecraft developer, Microcosm.
01:21But Musk had pumped $100 million into SpaceX from his proceeds from the sale of PayPal.
01:27And after thinking it over for a month, Shotwell bought into his vision of creating reusable
01:31rockets that could offer low-cost access to space.
01:36In a talk at Stanford University in 2022, Shotwell recounted, quote,
01:40In 2008, Musk promoted her to running the team as president and chief operating officer.
01:54With Musk's attention split between Tesla and his other ventures, she's kept the ambitious
01:58space company delivering on a breakneck development schedule, and helped make it the dominant
02:03rocket company on Earth.
02:06SpaceX has scaled from eight launches of its Falcon rocket in 2016 to a staggering 134
02:13in 2024.
02:15The next closest, China's state-owned CASC, managed just 48.
02:21SpaceX carried 83 percent of all satellites put into orbit worldwide last year, according
02:26to a report from the consultancy BriceTech.
02:30Most of those were SpaceX's own communications satellites, which are the main reason investors
02:35are excited about the company.
02:37SpaceX has built up a constellation of 6,800 satellites in low-Earth orbit that as of year-end
02:43were providing broadband internet service to 4.6 million subscribers, up 90 percent
02:49from 2023.
02:52SpaceX doesn't share financials, but in November, Shotwell said Starlink was going to turn a
02:56profit for the year.
02:59At the Barron Investment Conference, she said, quote,
03:02The company is incredibly valuable, I think, right now because of Starlink.
03:07Starlink will add a zero, probably, at least as we continue to grow the Starlink system.
03:13Morgan Stanley estimates Starlink achieved an operating profit of $900 million in 2024
03:19on $9.3 billion in revenue.
03:23But any cash from operations was likely canceled out by high spending to build out the Starlink
03:28constellation and develop SpaceX's giant Starship rocket.
03:33With roughly four times the payload capacity of Falcon 9, Starship is the linchpin in SpaceX's
03:38plans to dramatically increase the Starlink constellation's coverage and performance,
03:44and realize Musk's vision of reaching Mars.
03:47Not to mention, boost SpaceX's valuation even more.
03:52At the Barron Conference, Shotwell said, quote,
03:55Ultimately, I think Starship will be the thing that takes us over the top as one of the most
03:59valuable companies.
04:01We can't even envision what Starship is going to do to humanity and humans' lives, and I
04:06think that will be the most valuable part of SpaceX.
04:10Last year, Forbes ranked Shotwell at number 25 on our 2024 Power Women list.
04:16And this past week, she joined the Forbes World's Billionaires list for the first time.
04:22For full coverage, check out Jeremy Bogaski's piece on Forbes.com.
04:27This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:30Thanks for tuning in.
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