Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp stated that the company's first external financing has not yet been completed, and it is attracting a large amount of interest from investors, describing this round of financing as "over-subscribed."
“I’m very surprised at how the investment community has embraced space so enthusiastically… They understand that space is, to some extent, infinite, and so are the possibilities for launching commercial projects into space. This proves the favorable winds behind this round of financing,” Limp said on Tuesday at the Trump administration’s “Hello, America” technology summit held in Washington.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company had raised $1 billion with a valuation of $140 billion. The report stated that Jeff Bezos contributed $2 billion to this current round of financing, and since the company was founded in 2000, he has invested a total of $30 billion.
Limp has not confirmed the final figures, nor has it stated how much capital Bezos has invested.
This aerospace company, which has been established for 26 years, was founded by Bezos. Prior to that, it was fully funded by this Amazon founder. Limp stated that turning to introducing investors marks a significant shift for Blue Origin, as the company is seeking to expand its operations and put ambitious new technologies into use.
“I am firmly convinced that this will be the best investment Jeff has ever made, and by the way, there are quite a few other good projects in his investment record as well,” he said.
Why now?
This year, investors have flocked to aerospace companies, including both the private equity market and the public market.
SpaceX In June of this year, the historic IPO further established this industry and drew external attention to the commercial space economy, which is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years.
Limp indicates that the reason prompting the company to decide to reach out to investors now is the combined effect of "multiple factors," which include the New Glenn rockets of Blue Origin having flown multiple times, the announcement of two ambitious satellite constellation projects, and the need to attract and retain talent.
"Attracting top talent... is very difficult in a highly competitive world. Obviously, it's very helpful for employees to see the value of the company through an external valuation," he said.
Back in the Air
At the beginning of last year, the heavy New Glenn of Blue Origin entered orbit during its first flight; last autumn, the booster successfully landed during its second mission. This April, during the third mission, the results were mixed: the booster landed successfully, but the payload—a satellite launched for AST SpaceMobile—was sent into the wrong orbit and was eventually lost.
In late May, New Glenn experienced a catastrophic explosion on the launch pad at Blue Origin in Cape Canaveral, causing severe damage. The company has been working around the clock to carry out emergency repairs.
Limp On Tuesday, it was confirmed that the company still plans to get New Glenn back in flight before the end of this year. He also stated that currently, there are 1,000 people working at the launch pad – 500 during the day shift and 500 during the night shift – and the company is working around the clock to meet this schedule.
The satellite constellation plan also allows investors to see more clearly the company's direction of development.
Announced in January, TeraWave is a planned communication satellite service aimed at enterprises, data centers, and government operations, rather than providing broadband services to consumers. The plan will involve deploying over 5,400 satellites in low Earth orbit.
The Project Sunrise project disclosed in March will deploy approximately 56,000 satellites, which will be capable of performing artificial intelligence computations in space.
In one of his most detailed explanations regarding the strategy for the Blue Origin orbital data center, Limp indicated that the company envisions using New Glenn rockets to deploy a large number of heavy data centers into sun-synchronous orbit, where solar energy can provide sustainable power supply.
Limp says that these orbital data centers will not have very strong communication capabilities; instead, they will be connected to TeraWave to transmit the results back to Earth, thereby achieving "virtually unlimited computing power" access.
He said that the company is seeking to increase the frequency of rocket launches from hundreds per year to thousands per year.
“The mission of our company is to establish an economy in space, allowing millions of people to work and live there,” Limp added, “This is a vision for the next 100 years, but it will enable us to move heavy industry off Earth and turn this planet into a park.”
He stated that for the first time, this mission will be funded jointly by investors.
