2026-04-21 08:20
publication
2026-04-21 08:20
Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, is emerging as the highest-paid woman in the world of technology. Its most recent financial filings show it earned $85.8 million last year. Although her fixed salary is “only” one million dollars, the rest of the amount is made up of stock and prize packages, the value of which skyrocketed with the success of rocket missions.
Such a high pay puts the head of SpaceX ahead of the leaders of the largest giants from Silicon Valley. Shotwell outperformed even the CEOs of Apple and Microsoft in the pay rankings.
While Elon Musk focuses on visionary projects, Shotwell is responsible for the company's business stability and the implementation of key contracts. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as vice president of business development, becoming the seventh employee at the then-expanding company.
She played a key role in building demand for SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket as well as its Starlink broadband satellite constellation, which now generates the majority of the company's revenues and profits. Shotwell, a mechanical engineer by training, began her career at Chrysler Motors, from where she moved to the aerospace industry.
Star Wars in the USA. Bezos is catching up with Musk. Historic flight and landing
Billionaire Jeff Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, launched its New Glenn rocket for the first time on Sunday using an already used propulsion device, which will allow it to increase the frequency of subsequent launches and improve its ratings in competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX.
SpaceX is going public
Information about earnings came to light while SpaceX was preparing to go public. According to a fragment of the prospectus, CFO Bret Johnson earned a total of $9.8 million, while Elon Musk, who is the majority shareholder of SpaceX, paid himself a salary of only $54,080.
The initial public offering of SpaceX, Elon Musk's space industry tycoon, has a chance to outshine all previous stock exchange debuts.
The company, which completed the acquisition of sister company xAI in February, is valued at $1.25 trillion post-merger. Bloomberg reports that SpaceX intends to raise approximately $75 billion at a valuation of $1.75 trillion. This would potentially catapult the private company straight onto the list of the world's most valuable companies, and the IPO itself would easily become the largest in history.
“Billionaires under the microscope.” Is Rafał Brzoska a good entrepreneur?
Is it possible to reliably and without sugar-coating assess people who have a real impact on the economy, business and our everyday lives? In the first episode of our new format, we take a closer look at Rafał Brzoska – one of the most influential Polish entrepreneurs in recent years.
Prepared by JM
