Musk ally Gracias seeks AI and energy investments after $100 billion from SpaceX

Antonio Gracias, a long-serving member of SpaceX's board of directors and one of Elon Musk's closest financial allies, announced on July 1, 2026, his search for new investments in artificial intelligence, energy, and space. The reason: unprecedented profits—his fund's stakes in SpaceX have generated nearly $100 billion.

How Gracias Made Money from SpaceX

Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners, entered SpaceX's capital at an early stage, when the company was still perceived as a risky bet on Musk's ambitions. Board membership gave him direct access to operational decisions and strategy over many years.

• Fund profits from SpaceX—nearly $100 billion
• Target sectors: AI, energy, space
• Gracias—long-serving member of SpaceX's board of directors

By the mid-2020s, SpaceX had become one of the most valuable private companies in the world. The figure of 'nearly $100 billion' for a single fund is a level that most managers do not achieve over their entire careers. Long-term position holding through early technical failures and several iterations of the business model was the key to achieving such results.

Why Specifically AI, Energy, and Space

These three sectors are not arbitrary diversification: each flows from the expertise Gracias has already accumulated.

Space is a direct continuation of his career: a decade on SpaceX's board shapes an understanding of the industry unavailable to most funds. Commercial spaceflight in 2026 is experiencing rapid growth driven by Starship, Starlink, and lunar economy programs.

AI is the main investment theme of the early 2020s and, judging by development pace, the coming decade. Competition between AI labs is intensifying, and the AI infrastructure and AI applications market is expanding at multiple rates.

Energy naturally complements AI: data centers and training of large language models are already among the largest electricity consumers in certain regions. Investors capable of financing both AI computing and power supply for it occupy a unique market position.

A Signal for AI Investments

The emergence of an investor with a proven track record in Musk's ecosystem in the AI landscape is a significant market signal.

Gracias has access to deals closed off to most funds: his connections span SpaceX and xAI—Musk's AI lab, founded in 2023. Specific names of target companies are not yet disclosed, but the pivot to AI after locking in SpaceX profits suggests a systemic bet, not a one-off investment.

What This Means

One of the most successful venture cases of the past decade is reorienting toward the AI-energy-space cluster. This confirms the thesis: 'smart' capital in 2026 does not choose between these sectors but bets on their convergence.