Let's take the good news and the fine print together. On June 12, 2026, SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) completed the largest IPO in history — a genuinely remarkable milestone for everyone who helped build it. But going public didn't hand you a sell button. Instead of the usual single 180-day cliff, SpaceX designed an unusual staggered lockup that releases insider shares in waves, tied to earnings dates and the calendar.

The first wave opened on August 6, two days after the company's debut earnings report — roughly 20% of locked shares. There was a chance another 10% would release early if the stock had held about 30% above its $135 IPO price going into earnings; it didn't, so those shares simply roll into later windows. The reassuring takeaway: you have time. What unlocked on the 6th is the opening chapter, not the finale.

"Unlocked" doesn't quite mean "sellable"

Here's the wrinkle that trips people up, and it's an easy one to miss. Even for shares that have technically unlocked, you're still an employee — so insider-trading rules and company blackout windows still decide when you're actually allowed to trade. Liquidity tends to arrive in narrow, pre-scheduled openings rather than the moment you feel ready. The happy part is that this is completely plannable, as long as you're looking ahead rather than reacting.

What you'll owe depends on what you actually hold

This is the part where a little homework tends to pay for itself, sometimes many times over. There's no single tax answer, because it depends entirely on your mix. RSUs that vested at or after the IPO were generally taxed as ordinary income already, so selling now is mostly a capital-gains conversation about the move since. NSOs create ordinary income when you exercise. And ISOs are the ones to handle with real care — exercising them can trigger the Alternative Minimum Tax well before any cash reaches your account.

A few paths people in your shoes often explore: choosing which specific tax lots to sell first, so you're not handing over more in gains than you need to; exercising ISOs in measured blocks across several years to keep AMT in check (and recovering that AMT as a credit in later years); and being deliberate about the timing of each sale, so gains land in years that work in your favor rather than stacking into one.

The real question isn't "will it go up"

If you've been at SpaceX for a while, a large — and maybe slightly nerve-wracking — share of your net worth now rides on one young, volatile stock. The shares have had a bumpy start since the debut, and it's natural to anchor to the IPO price or that first-day pop. Gently: those are the wrong yardsticks.

A kinder question to sit with is this — how much of your family's future do you want tied to a single stock chart? You don't have to answer it all at once. Because the unlock is staggered, you can diversify in steady, paced steps, selling a set amount each window rather than making one high-stakes call. And many people find real peace of mind in taking their number off the table first: setting aside enough to fund the retirement, the house, the kids' education — whatever "enough" means to you — and then letting the rest ride with a clear head if they still believe in the story. Some fold those proceeds into a broadly diversified portfolio designed to harvest losses along the way, which can help offset the gains as you sell your SpaceX shares down.

This is really a life decision wearing a tax disguise

Plenty of specialists can optimize your AMT down to the last dollar. Fewer begin with the question that quietly decides everything: what is this money for? For a lot of SpaceX employees, this moment nudged retirement from "someday" to "sooner than I thought" — or made it entirely optional. That's a wonderful problem to have, and it deserves a real plan, not just a spreadsheet.

When the plan and the tactics work together, they make each other better. If giving matters to you, donating appreciated shares — often through a donor-advised fund — can support the causes you love while sidestepping capital gains on those shares. If early retirement is suddenly on the table, there's real value in topping up your tax-advantaged accounts while your income is high and building a bridge to carry you there comfortably. The tactics are only ever as good as the life they're serving.

We're just down the road in Issaquah — minutes from SpaceX's Redmond campus and the Sammamish and Woodinville neighborhoods many of you call home. We spend our days with people at exactly this moment: concentrated equity that just turned partly liquid, a tax picture that only makes sense grant by grant, and a life that suddenly holds more options than it did a year ago. We lead with teaching rather than selling, because decisions this meaningful deserve to be understood, not rushed.