How a graffiti artist made $200 million from Facebook!

18 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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1:12

A short YouTube narrative by Dan Novaes recounts how graffiti artist David Cho painted murals at Facebook’s Palo Alto office in 2005 and accepted equity instead of a cash payment. Cho was reportedly offered $60,000 in cash but chose Facebook stock; the video states he owned 0.25% which at the $38 IPO price (seven years later) was worth about $200 million, and that his remaining stake would be worth about $5.1 billion today if never sold. The piece frames this as a high-stakes gamble and closes with a follow-up call to the channel.

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This guy made $200 million for his artwork. All because he wanted to gamble on a small social media company. In 2005, Facebook was a small social media network for colleges. After moving to their first headquarters in Palo Alto, California, Sean Parker, president of Facebook at the time, invited David Cho to come paint murals at the office. Cho had a cult like following and was known for his dirty style, raw graffiti work and that vibe fit Facebook's scrappy mentality at the time. And John Parker wanted something on the walls to reflect that. But David didn't want to feel like he was selling out and doing a big job for a tech company that was going to tell him what. But Sean was clear that he could paint whatever he wanted, so David agreed. After the job, they offered David 60,000 in cash. And not wanting to deal with billing or contracts, they offered him stock and Facebook instead. David laughed because he thought Facebook was stupid and wouldn't survive. But he had a gambler's mindset, so he decided to take a risk. Seven years later, Facebook goes public at $38 a share, valuing his 0.25% of stock at $200 million. Selling most of his shares post IPO. He did keep some back, but he wanted to secure some cash in case things changed. But if he never sold any shares, his stock would be worth 5.1 billion. Today. $200 million is great for artwork, but if he never sold, that would have been the greatest gamble in world history. For more entrepreneur stories and information like this, follow UBK.