Antonio Gracias

Gracias was born in Detroit, Michigan to immigrant parents. His father was a neurosurgeon from India and his mother a pharmacist from Spain running a shop.

Gracias attended Georgetown University where he pursued a joint degree program in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, graduating with a BSFS and MSFS with a concentration in international economics in 1993.

He also studied abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, later returning to that city for a fellowship with Nikko Securities. He later attended the University of Chicago Law School, graduating with a JD in 1998.

As of 2025, Gracias is a member of the board of advisors for the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, as well as the University of Chicago board of trustees.

While in law school, in 1995, Gracias founded MG Capital, a private equity firm whose core team formed the basis for the founding of Valor Equity Partners. He is Valor's chief executive officer and chief investment officer. Valor often invests in companies led or funded by Elon Musk. In addition to Tesla and SpaceX, Valor's portfolio companies include Anduril Industries, Neuralink, Reddit, Eight Sleep, and Zipline.

Gracias was a member of Tesla’s board of directors from 2007 to 2021.

Gracias is a trustee of The Aspen Institute. He is also a member of the board of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a member of the University of Chicago board of trustees. Gracias was named as one of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship by President Obama in May 2015.

Gracias has maintained a close personal and business relationship with Elon Musk spanning more than two decades. He was an early investor in Tesla through Valor Equity Partners and served on Tesla's board from 2007 to 2021. He has also worked as Tesla's lead independent director. He continues to serve on the SpaceX board and is an investor in Neuralink.

The two men have taken multiple personal and family vacations together, including trips to magician David Copperfield's private island in the Bahamas, and Gracias was a groomsman at the wedding of Musk's brother Kimbal. During Musk's acquisition of Twitter in 2022, Gracias served as an enforcer and proxy, communicating Musk's directives to staff. Valor Equity Partners has reportedly been in talks with lenders to raise $12 billion for Musk's xAI artificial intelligence company.

Gracias has been a significant donor to psychedelics research and advocacy organizations. He is part of a broader movement among Silicon Valley investors interested in the therapeutic and commercial potential of psychedelic drugs. He donated $1 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 2020, and in 2023 contributed $16 million to psychedelics research at Harvard University. Gracias funded research at Imperial College London Centre for Psychedelic Research and the Icahn School of Medicine.

In 2022, Gracias donated $5 million to Georgetown University through the Gracias Family Foundation to establish the Gracias Family Sunflower Current Use Scholarship, which provides financial support and emergency assistance to students displaced by the war in Ukraine.

In 2007 and 2012, Gracias donated to presidential primary candidate, Barack Obama. In 2007 and 2016, he supported Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. In 2020, Gracias contributed nearly $500,000 to Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

In 2024, Gracias contributed $1 million to Musk's America PAC effort to re-elect Trump. During the first half of 2025, Gracias donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that supports Donald Trump.