Bezos' Blue Origin's first round of external financing valued at $130 billion
Multiple sources told reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin: Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is conducting its first round of external financing, with a fundraising scale of US$10 billion and a post-money valuation of US$130 billion. This round of financing comes on the heels of Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s blockbuster listing last month. Blue Origin competes directly with SpaceX in multiple fields such as heavy-lift launch vehicles and lunar landers. (AMZN) shares fell $4.09, or 1.66% AST Space Mobile Inc. (ASTS) rose $2.63, or 3.54% According to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, the total size of this round of financing is about US$10 billion, with Bezos himself contributing US$2 billion and hedge fund Couture Capital contributing approximately US$4 billion. The market demand for subscription of the remaining US$4 billion in subscription shares is strong, and many large institutional investors plan to participate in the investment. This financing comes on the heels of SpaceX’s market-shaking announcement last month. IPO (ticker SPCX). SpaceX raised a total of nearly US$86 billion including underwriters' over-allotment rights, setting the world's largest IPO in history and bringing Musk's net worth into the trillions of US dollars. The current company valuation is about US$2 trillion. In an interview in May this year, Bezos said that the company was "considering" bringing in external capital, but that the relevant plans had not yet been implemented at that time. He said at the time: "Now is a good time to plan for long-term development and bring in external investors." Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. After stepping down as Amazon CEO in 2021, he will devote more energy to the aerospace company. Blue Origin and SpaceX have highly overlapping tracks, including heavy-duty launch vehicles, lunar landers, and satellite Internet businesses, but Musk's companies are significantly ahead in many fields. Prior to this, Blue Origin’s funding was entirely supported by Bezos’s selling of Amazon stock. Bezos stated in 2024 that he believed Blue Origin would be larger than Amazon in the future. Blue Origin suffered a major accident at the end of May this year: a New Glenn rocket exploded during a static hot test at the Florida launch pad. The company is currently repairing the damaged launch pad and thoroughly investigating the root cause of the failure. Bezos and Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp set an aggressive goal: to resume New Glenn rocket launches by the end of 2026. The rocket is the core carrier for Blue Origin to undertake orders from customers such as NASA, Amazon, and AST Space Mobile.