SpaceX is reportedly planning a new sale of shares at a $150 billion valuation, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with Bloomberg. SpaceX is pursuing a potential $750 million tender offer and plans to sell shares at $80 per share.
This round will give “insiders,” people or organizations who own a significant number of voting shares, a chance to liquidate their holdings. The tender offer could change depending on interest from sellers and buyers.
(Yes, it is possible for “insiders” to get in trouble for “insider trading,” but that mostly involves publicly traded companies like Tesla. SpaceX is a privately held company.)
SpaceX previously conducted a $750 million funding round at a $137 billion valuation in January. It reportedly has $5 billion in cash on hand. Elon Musk has also said that SpaceX holds Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase confirmed that Tesla and SpaceX are customers.
Yes, Dogecoin is still Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency. It can be spent on swag in the SpaceX gift shop. Also, the DOGE-1 mission promoted Dogecoin by using it to pay for a launch. For those who would like to catch the launch of DOGE-1, it is scheduled to take place during Q3 2023 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida — most likely during September 2023. It will launch alongside the first of the Intuitive Machines lunar landers.
As usual, SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment on the share sale. The sources asked not to be named.
SpaceX has done well with its launch services, recently delivering a new model of solar panels to the International Space Station on a Crew Dragon. Its contracts with NASA include two future launches of CubeSats for NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative and a Commercial Crew Program contract that made SpaceX’s Crew Dragon the first (and, so far, only) privately owned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. It also has contracts to launch the first components of the Lunar Gateway and develop the Artemis Lunar Lander that is slated to fly on Artemis III.
It will also launch robotic lunar landers for Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Astrobotic as a subcontractor for these companies, which have contracts with NASA to send lunar landers to the Moon to help select a good landing site.
Starlink is also doing fairly well despite the occasional setback such as SpaceX having to issue refunds to India residents who signed up for the service due to a licensing issue in January 2022 and an apparent dispute over who will pay for Starlink services used by the Ukrainian defense force that has since been resolved. As the above video shows, SpaceX still regularly launches new Starlink satellites.
Starlink has regulatory approval for large vehicles like RV, buses, trains, and airplanes. Most recently, regional train line Brightline selected Starlink to provide Internet access on its trains.
SpaceX does not seem to mind launching Internet-providing satellites for Starlink’s competitors despite occasional disputes with ones like ViaSat and OneWeb, often with regulators acting as referees. It has launched satellites for both companies in the wake of Russian rockets becoming unavailable to European companies like OneWeb. It also made a shortlist of launch services that the European Space Agency will consider for future contracts.
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