From $28 an Hour to a Rp 17.8 Billion Fortune: A Welder's SpaceX Journey

A job as a welder at a then little-known aerospace company has dramatically transformed one man’s life within a decade. Juan Hernandez, an immigrant in the United States, is now a millionaire thanks to his decision to accept a job offer he initially considered unremarkable. The story began in 2015, when Juan received word from a friend working at SpaceX who suggested he apply for a welding position. “I didn’t know what SpaceX was at the time. To me, it was just a regular contract job,” he said in an interview with CBS News. Upon being hired, he earned around US$28 per hour, the same rate as his previous jobs. However, one thing was different: the company gave him shares worth US$10,000. At the time, Juan had no understanding of the long-term value of the offer. “It wasn’t a big deal to me. I had never been offered shares at any other job, and I never imagined the value would become this high,” he recalled. Over 10 years at SpaceX, Juan worked on building rocket support structures and launch infrastructure, eventually rising to the rank of supervisor. For him, the company’s policy of granting stock ownership to all employees—from welders and cooks to technicians—is the key to work morale. “Employees will work better because they feel this is their company too,” he said. In June 2026, SpaceX officially listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange with an IPO valuation of US$75 billion. The company’s shares, trading under the ticker SPCX, immediately surged and closed at US$160.95 per share on the first day of trading. Juan’s holdings, totalling around 6,500 shares, are now worth more than US$1,046,175, equivalent to over Rp 17 billion. The event also made SpaceX founder Elon Musk the first person in the world to amass a fortune of US$1 trillion. Despite now being a millionaire, Juan has not changed. He remains humble and intends to keep working. He has since joined Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Jeff Bezos. If given the chance to speak directly with Elon Musk, Juan says he would only want to say thank you. “He made this dream possible for people like me, who work as welders, electricians, or cooks. He changed our lives and our families’ futures for the better,” he said.