Most people get rich by saving for years or building a business. David Choe’s money story worked differently. He was an underground artist who took stock instead of a normal check for painting at a small tech company.
That company was Facebook, and the choice ended up being worth an amount most people can’t even picture.
Growing Up in L.A. and Building a Name in Art
David Choe was born in Los Angeles in 1976 to Korean immigrant parents. He grew up around Koreatown and started out doing graffiti-style work while he was still young.
His early path was not the usual “art school, gallery, museum” route. It was more about drawing all the time, practicing in public, and slowly getting better through nonstop work.
In 1996, he self-published his first novel, Slow Jams, putting his work out on his own instead of waiting for a publisher. Over the next few years, he built a strong following for art that looked messy on purpose, with fast lines and big energy.
On Wikipedia, his style gets linked to the kind of raw mural and illustration work that stands out because it doesn’t try to look perfect.
By the early 2000s, his art was showing up more, including in magazines like Vice. He also described his approach with a name that stuck: “dirty style.” The point of that label was not to sound polite. It was to explain that his art leaned into rough textures, sharp feelings, and a kind of controlled chaos.
That look helped him gain attention beyond normal art circles. It also made him the type of artist that certain tech people wanted around, especially the ones trying to make their workplaces feel creative and new instead of stiff and corporate.
The Facebook Office Walls and a Deal Offered by Sean Parker
In 2005, Choe got a call that changed everything. Sean Parker, known for co-founding Napster and for becoming Facebook’s first president, invited him to paint the walls of Facebook’s original office in Palo Alto.
At that time, Facebook was still small enough that this was basically an office mural job, not some giant public art project with a big ceremony.
Choe did not think the company sounded impressive. He said he saw the social network as “ridiculous and pointless” back then.
Even with that opinion, he still took the job because it was paid work and it was a full building, which is a serious amount of painting.
When it came time to name a price, he asked for $60,000. On Howard Stern’s show, he explained his rates had been rising and that for a job that size it was “going to be 60… you know, 60 grand,” a quote CNBC later highlighted.
So the number was not random. It matched what he felt his time and output were worth.
Then Parker made the offer that turned a simple art check into a major financial turning point. Choe could take the $60,000 in cash, or he could accept Facebook stock that was valued around the same amount at the time. KQED reported that Parker pushed him toward taking the stock option.
That was not a safe or obvious move in 2005, because Facebook had not yet become the giant it is now, and its future was not guaranteed.
Choe still accepted the stock. The decision was basically a bet that the company would grow instead of fading out. It also showed something about his personality: he was willing to take a risk even when he didn’t fully believe in the product.
Two years later, in 2007, Mark Zuckerberg brought him back to paint a second set of murals for Facebook’s next headquarters. Those were described as tamer than the earlier work.
KQED reported that Facebook later had the art carefully cut out of the walls and reinstalled when the company moved again, which tells you the murals were treated like real assets, not just office decoration.
The 2012 IPO and a Net Worth Jump Nobody Expected
The big money moment came in May 2012, when Facebook went public at $38 a share. That event, the IPO, is the point when regular investors can buy shares on the stock market.
For people holding shares early, it can be life-changing, because the paper value of the stock becomes real and widely measured.
Choe’s stake was commonly described as somewhere between 0.1% and 0.25% of Facebook. When the IPO hit, his shares were suddenly valued close to $200 million.
That number did not come from rumor alone. Choe confirmed it himself in interviews, and major outlets like The Washington Post and The Seattle Times reported it too.
Lots of people made money from the Facebook IPO, including early backers like Peter Thiel and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Their gains made sense because investing is literally their job.
Choe stood out because he was not playing the usual Silicon Valley game. He was a painter who got paid in equity because one person suggested it and he decided to roll with it.
The money changed his life fast, but not in every way people imagine.
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Choe explained that becoming rich did not bring back the normal privacy he used to have, because reporters and curious strangers kept trying to track him down. KQED included that part of his public comments when covering how his life shifted after the IPO attention.
From a journalistic view, this is one of the clearest examples of how strange Silicon Valley can be. A person doing creative work can end up with the kind of wealth usually linked to founders and investors, all because of timing and one contract decision.
What He Did Next, and Where He Is Now
After the IPO, Choe did not move through the world like a standard finance guy. His spending choices looked personal and weird in a way that matched his art.
In 2014, CNBC reported that he found $100,000 sitting in a shoebox in his room. Instead of treating it like some secret stash, he decided to give it away using a nationwide scavenger hunt.
The winner got the money, a flight to Los Angeles, and a custom painting. It was not a normal charity plan with a gala or a big brand partnership. It was more like Choe turning generosity into a public art-style event.
A few years later, he set up “The Choe Show,” a free exhibit in Los Angeles that was invitation-only. People had to apply, go through a long vetting process, and sign a non-disclosure agreement before getting in.
Hyperallergic reported that the event mixed performance, personal storytelling, and his artwork. Guests also had to follow strict rules as a condition of entry, including being barred from certain activities for twelve hours beforehand.
The overall setup made it clear he was trying to control the experience and keep it intense, not casual.
By this point, Choe was not just “the guy who got rich off Facebook.” He kept working as an artist and kept building a career that stood on its own, even if the Facebook money stayed as the headline people remembered.
Today, in his late 40s, he remains active. His paintings continue to sell through auctions tracked by Artnet and MutualArt. He also shares new work and commentary through his own site, davidchoe.com, and through his YouTube channel.
That mix of auction visibility and direct posting fits the way he has always worked: part fine-art world, part independent creator.
Meanwhile, Facebook itself changed a lot. The company rebranded as Meta Platforms in 2021. The same stock that Choe took instead of a $60,000 check has traded around $580 a share in recent trading, based on market data from TradingView, far above the $38 IPO price back in 2012.
Put together, Choe’s case is a clean Silicon Valley lesson that doesn’t sound real until you look at the dates and the details. He didn’t build an app or pitch a startup.
He priced a mural job, accepted stock, and ended up with one of the biggest financial windfalls ever tied to a single art commission. That outcome is rare, but the steps are clear, and that’s why people still talk about it.
Sources
CNBC — “How Facebook graffiti artist David Choe earned $200 million”
KQED — “Facebook Graffiti Artist David Choe Gets His 15 Minutes and $200 Million Worth of Fame”
Seattle Times — “Facebook artist wisely took stock as pay for murals”
Hyperallergic — “Stuck Outside David Choe’s Secret Show”
Artnet — David Choe artist page