$2bn of fresh finance for SpaceX
August 20, 2020
SpaceX has generated some $1.9 billion of fresh funding during August, and according to reports, is still looking to raise more cash. The initial target was to raise $2.066 billion.
The cash-raising exercise follows on from SpaceX raising $346 million in May.
The news comes as Musk achieves 4th position as the world’s richest person and helped by the rocketing value of Tesla shares. Musk is now worth $85 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, behind Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, in that order.
The injection of new money has been helped by solid performances from SpaceX and its delivery and return of astronauts from the International Space Station (the first-ever by a private business) and the now extremely regular launches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. SpaceX has launched 653 Starlink craft, although it is know that there have been some orbital failures.
The latest Starlink launch took place on August 18th. SpaceX has launched 14 times this year with 9 of those efforts carrying its own Starlink satellites. That launch cadence is good but its efforts were better in 2018 when there were 20 launches of its Falcon 9 and one Falcon Heavy.
SpaceX, in an SEC regulatory filing, said the cash was raised on August 4th and 75 investors participated. The response now values SpaceX at some $46 billion. The investors will receive shares in SpaceX.
The cash will be used for general purposes and capital intensive projects at SpaceX which likely includes more rockets, more Starlink satellites and more investment on Musk’s giant Starship spaceship.
The Starship project is coming along nicely. A test ‘flight’ (SN5) on August 4th managed a journey of some 175 metres altitude, but there’s a-way to go before Musk’s longer-term ambition bears fruit which is to take 100 people to Mars, and back.
Other posts by Chris Forrester:
- Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
- Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
- SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
- IRIS2 already in trouble?
- Intelsat contemplates next steps
- SpaceX: 2.7m customers and $180bn value
- Boeing, Virgin Galactic in court battle
- Jupiter-3 a changemaker
- Terran Orbital is again Compliant