SpaceX to raise another $750 million in stock sale; earnings rise to $8 billion in ’23
According to anonymous sources, a new stock sale at SpaceX is likely to raise another $750 million because of enthusiasm on Wall Street for the stock due to the company’s growing earnings, which are expected to double to $8 billion this year.
Last week, CNBC reported that Elon Musk’s SpaceX valuation reached nearly $150B following an announcement of a stock sale by existing investors. According to a copy of the purchase offer sent by CFO Bret Johnsen, which CNBC obtained, the company has entered into an agreement with new and existing investors to sell up to $750 million in stock at a price of $81 per share. This represents a 5% increase from the previous secondary sale at $77 per share, which valued the company at approximately $140B. SpaceX has not provided any comments regarding the purchase offer.
Though the article does not say, that revenue comes from two sources, SpaceX’s rocket launches and its Starlink constellation. In the first case the company dominates the launch industry, because its launch price is so much cheaper than everyone else. In the second case, Starlink is producing so much revenue because Elon Musk forced the company to move fast and get its satellites in orbit quickly. Though both SpaceX and Amazon announced their internet constellations at about the same time, Amazon has still not launched any satellites, while SpaceX has more than 4,000 in orbit. This active and operating constellation has allowed SpaceX to grab market share that Amazon is now likely never to get, even when it begins launching.
All this makes SpaceX very appealing to investors, which is why its private stock price has gone up. It is also why it has been able to raise now almost $11 billion in private investment capital for building both Starlink and its Starship/Superheavy rocket.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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According to anonymous sources, a new stock sale at SpaceX is likely to raise another $750 million because of enthusiasm on Wall Street for the stock due to the company’s growing earnings, which are expected to double to $8 billion this year.
Last week, CNBC reported that Elon Musk’s SpaceX valuation reached nearly $150B following an announcement of a stock sale by existing investors. According to a copy of the purchase offer sent by CFO Bret Johnsen, which CNBC obtained, the company has entered into an agreement with new and existing investors to sell up to $750 million in stock at a price of $81 per share. This represents a 5% increase from the previous secondary sale at $77 per share, which valued the company at approximately $140B. SpaceX has not provided any comments regarding the purchase offer.
Though the article does not say, that revenue comes from two sources, SpaceX’s rocket launches and its Starlink constellation. In the first case the company dominates the launch industry, because its launch price is so much cheaper than everyone else. In the second case, Starlink is producing so much revenue because Elon Musk forced the company to move fast and get its satellites in orbit quickly. Though both SpaceX and Amazon announced their internet constellations at about the same time, Amazon has still not launched any satellites, while SpaceX has more than 4,000 in orbit. This active and operating constellation has allowed SpaceX to grab market share that Amazon is now likely never to get, even when it begins launching.
All this makes SpaceX very appealing to investors, which is why its private stock price has gone up. It is also why it has been able to raise now almost $11 billion in private investment capital for building both Starlink and its Starship/Superheavy rocket.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“”Earnings expected to double””
Perfect example of the free enterprise system. Reusable rockets drive the launch price down. As you pointed out recently, two of the first stages have both been used 16 times! Cutting prices, just like cutting taxes, generates more income.
I imagine Robert Heinlein is smiling every time SpaceX launches.
Git thar fustest with the mostest. Attributed to Stonewall Jackson.
“Git thar fustest with the mostest. Attributed to Stonewall Jackson.”
Actually I believe that was Nathan Bedford Forest. (And I won’t take 30 seconds to google it.)
Call me Ishmael,
I did google and it appears you are right. I thought I remembered it as a quote from Jackson in the Shenandoah campaign. What i get for thinking when not used to it I guess.
Hopefully he sells some shares to key members of Congress. They won’t be happy with any federal agency that interferes with the value of their investments…
Kevin, I believe they call that friends and family stock.
SpaceX might not have to go public when Starship is flying regular trips. The dividends would be very attractive.
I hope they never go public.
Kevin–I think your suggestion is a wonderful idea.
I just can’t help but be sorry for Gary Hudson.
For years the poor man pushed for private space…and all he got was seven hundred different kinds of “no.”
Elon ought to throw him a bone at least.
Is Starship intended to make a profit? Does SpaceX expect NASA to pay billions for Starship missions to the moon and mars? Just wondering that at some point will SpaceX investors oppose company investment in missions to Mars? ( which provide zero commercial ROI. )
And THAT’S why Boeing is in a fix SpaceX isn’t….now…profits over everything.
Starship could lead to the industrial opening of space… factories and such. We will see.
I wish SpaceX would go public so I could buy in. Not just because I think they will make a lot of money, but because I love the idea of private enterprise in space. I do understand why it is unlikely to happen: Elon doesn’t want to have to answer to ESG institutional investors, or Wall street demands for profit over investment in new technologies. Elon sometimes seems crazy as can be, but trying and failing sometimes is part of trying and succeeding.
And this is exactly why I have Starlink internet: I like where my monthly fees are going. At the very least, it’s visible. What does the cable company do with the $80/month I send them (for rental unit and my Starlink backup; it really doesn’t like severe weather).
Steve Richter asked: “Is Starship intended to make a profit?”
Yes. If the cost projections are anywhere near correct, SpaceX does not have to charge very much per pound to make a profit with Starship. The company may be able to charge about as much per pound as the overnight companies charge for international shipments.
“Does SpaceX expect NASA to pay billions for Starship missions to the moon and mars?”
Probably not. Starship should be far less expensive than SLS, and with low prices should come more demand for the service than SLS is seeing. Although, that is a very low bar. About six years ago, NASA asked for suggestions for missions for SLS, and no one bothered, because the rocket would be too expensive for anyone’s budget. SLS’s availability may eventually be an annual launch, which is still too infrequent for NASA’s proposed sustainable lunar base.
SLS is not the rocket of the future. With its low cost, its availability, and its flexibility in types (tanker, payload, manned), Starship is looking like the rocket of the future.
“Just wondering that at some point will SpaceX investors oppose company investment in missions to Mars?”
Probably not. The investors know what they are getting into when they invest. It is the mission of the company. The investors may be investing more in Starlink than in Starship.
“( which provide zero commercial ROI. )”
Maybe not zero. At the very least, people on Mars can return huge amounts of exploration data and information, which we currently pay large amounts to obtain. Our robotic rovers move one day and take photographs and sample the location. People can move faster and farther, and they can sample far more each day. They can evaluate in real time and on site what they want to examine next, without waiting a day for people on Earth to make a decision and waiting for time on the Deep Space Network to communicate the decision. The photographs will not have to be so limiting as with the rovers.
Right now, all we get is remote sensing from robotics, and we have scheduled a very expensive robotic mission just to get a few pounds of martian dirt back to Earth for study. We barely know anything about Mars, with many questions that just aren’t being answered through remote examination. In just a few hours on site on the Moon, earthlings collected hundreds of pounds of samples to return to Earth. Humans can work faster and smarter than these “Waldo” robots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator
With field geologists (areionologists?) on Mars, many of the questions generated by our robotic landers, rovers, and satellites should be quickly answered. Lessons in living in a different gravity will be learned. The harsh environment will require the explorers and settlers to solve problems that we don’t have, and their solutions may be welcome here on Earth.
There are many ways for a martian or lunar colony to be useful to we earthlings, and we may be willing to pay for solutions to their problems that help solve our own problems. Just having a few people in low Earth orbit has already found many solutions to our problems.