His name is Antonio Gracias, a handsome private equity investor from Detroit. The two met through the Silicon Valley web at the turn of the century, and soon Gracias—at 55, just one year older than Musk—lent Musk $1 million in his early days at Tesla, when the company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
The two have been best friends ever since. Gracias was a groomsman at Kimbal Musk’s wedding, the families have vacationed together, spent the holidays together, and even traveled to David Copperfield’s private island in the Bahamas.
And Gracias trailed Musk through all of his ventures. He’s sat on the boards of Tesla—where he spent eight years as lead independent director—SpaceX, SolarCity, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. His firm, Valor Equity Partners, was one of Tesla’s earliest institutional investors and has put money into nearly every Musk company.
Gracias even followed Musk into the federal government, taking a role at the Department of Government Efficiency before resigning in July amid scrutiny over managing $2 billion in public pension assets while serving as a government employee.
Now, with SpaceX preparing for the largest IPO in history, Gracias’ loyalty is about to pay off.
