SpaceX raises $850m in funding at a $74bn valuation

24 Feb 2021

Image: © Sundry Photography/Stock.adobe.com

The company is building its next rocket Starship and launching Starlink, a network of high-speed broadband satellites.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has raised $850m in a new funding round as it ramps up investments in its latest rocket and satellite broadband network Starlink.

Reports swirled last week that the private space exploration company had closed a new bumper round. This week, new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US confirmed the investment.

The investment values the company at $74bn and sets a per-share value of nearly $420. Sequoia Capital once again invested in the company, bringing the VC firm’s total investment in SpaceX to more than $600m, according to Bloomberg.

On top of the new equity raise, existing shareholders sold off shares worth $750m in secondary transactions.

SpaceX has now built up a sizeable pot of cash to fund its capital-intensive operations.

There are two projects in particular that are dominating SpaceX’s time. First, it is building Starship, its proposed reusable rocket, with the ultimate goal of carrying people on missions to Mars and the moon. Prototypes are currently being built and tested at a Texas base.

Starlink, Musk’s global broadband internet satellite network, is getting up and running as well. SpaceX is planning to launch thousands of satellites into space to beam high-speed, low-latency broadband to remote and rural locations in a way that is “unbounded by traditional ground infrastructure”.

This week, the Black Valley in Co Kerry was reported to be the first Irish location for Starlink through coordination with the Department of Rural and Community Development and Kerry County Council.

Launching Starlink, which has been rolled out in some regions in North America so far, is tipped to cost around $10bn. Company leaders indicated in the past that Starlink would spin off as its own publicly listed company eventually, but Musk said last year that this won’t happen any time soon.

Jonathan Keane is a freelance business and technology journalist based in Dublin

editorial@siliconrepublic.com