Blue Origin is reportedly preparing to invite outside investors onto its share register for the first time at a price which values it at US$130 billion (A$188 billion), according to The New York Times (NYT) newspaper.
The space technology company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is seeking $10 billion in a funding round from outside investors, the NYT reported in its DealBook column.
Coatue Management was expected to lead the round with a $4 billion commitment with another $2 billion to be contributed by Bezos, who has financed the company’s growth through sales of his Amazon shares, the newspaper wrote.
His Amazon stake is worth more than $250 billion.
The report comes amid a surge in investor demand for space companies in the wake of the initial public offer and stockmarket debut in June of Elon Musk’s SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), which has a market capitalisation of $1.5 trillion.
The fund raising details reported by the NYT were subsequently confirmed by other media outlets, including Reuters in this article and CNBC in this story.
Bezos recently indicated that Blue Origin was considering bringing in external investors now that it had gained enough visibility into its future and financial prospects to begin considering outside capital.
“It’s a good time actually to start thinking about the future and bring on some other outside investors,” Bezos told CNBC.
Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon Chief Executive Officer in 2021, has turned more of his attention to Blue Origin, which he founded in 2000.
It competes in many of the same markets as SpaceX, including heavy-lift rockets, lunar landers and satellite internet, although Musk has a significant lead in several of those areas.
Blue Origin suffered a setback in May when one of its rockets exploded on a launchpad during a test, but the company is investing the cause and looking to return to flights by the end of 2026.
