The math behind Silicon Valley's millionaire factory

New Levels.fyi analyses show how equity grants at frontier tech companies have turned into life-changing sums.

A SpaceX Software Engineer II offer from August 2022 included a $155,000 salary and a $365,000 equity grant that vested over five years.

At SpaceX’s IPO valuation, that grant is estimated to be worth more than $4 million, assuming it was held.

At Anthropic, engineers who joined in 2023 may now be sitting on equity worth tens of millions of dollars after the AI company’s valuation surge.

OpenAI shows a similar pattern, with some 2022 and 2023 equity grants to engineers now valued at over $50 million.

These are not guaranteed windfalls: variables such as vesting, dilution, and lockups mean employees may end up with less.

And don’t forget those huge tax bills.

Still, these estimates give a real taste of the wealth that Silicon Valley has created — and spread among workers.

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Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.