Following a share sale by existing investors at the company, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s valuation has passed $100 billion. According to reports, the space company had an agreement with both new and existing to sell stock from insiders up to $755 million at $560 per share.
According to reports and inside sources, SpaceX did not raise new capital but instead had a secondary sale of existing shares which increased the company’s valuation to $100.3 billion. The new share price means that SpaceX’s valuation has increased by 33 percent from $74 billion at $419,99 per share in February to its recent valuation of $100.3 billion at $560 per share. SpaceX raised $1.2 billion in February and also had secondary share sales that saw insiders sell up to $750 million in stock.
When companies see their valuation surpass a billion dollars, they are accorded the title of a unicorn. While this is not rare, it is not every day we see the valuation of a company surpass a hundred billion dollars. SpaceX, therefore, is one of the world’s rarest private “centicorn” – a company worth at least a hundred billion dollars. SpaceX is now the world’s second most valuable private company standing behind China’s ByteDance and above payments company Stripe.
In May this year, the aerospace manufacturer and space transport company announced plans to launch a “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” by the first quarter of next year and was accepting Shiba Inu-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin as full payment for the lunar payload.
SpaceX (alongside its other sibling companies owned by Elon Musk) has seen its valuation grow astronomically. The company has raised billions of dollars to fund projects like Starlink and Starship, which are highly capital intensive.
Under Starlink, the company plans to build an interconnected space internet network. The project will see thousands of satellites, otherwise referred to as a constellation that will be used to deliver high-speed internet to users anywhere they are in the world. To date, 1740 satellites have been launched and more than 100,000 users in more than ten countries have begun using Starlink’s services in a beta program priced at $99 a month. The company revealed plans to launch its satellite internet in Nigeria in May and said it was already working on acquiring required licenses.
On the other hand, Starship is the company’s project that aims to build huge next-generation rockets that can transport people to the moon and Mars. The company is currently testing prototypes at its Southern Texas facility and has completed some test flights and is currently waiting for regulatory approval for its next flight. However, co-billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have successfully completed human travel on their Virgin Galactic and New Shepard respectively.
SpaceX is yet to respond to requests for comments about its new valuation.
