Blue Origin’s days as a Bezos-funded billion-dollar pet project are coming to an end. The launch provider is reportedly opening up its business to outside investment for the first time, seeking to raise $10B at a $130B valuation, according to the New York Times.
The round is expected to include $2B in capital from Bezos, $4B from asset management firm Coatue Management, and $4B from other institutional investors, according to the report.
Irons in the fire: The revelation comes as Blue Origin dusts itself off from an unexpected explosion of its New Glenn rocket on the launch pad this spring. Despite the setback, Blue Origin confirmed that it’s targeting a return to flight before the end of the year, thanks to some clever reengineering of the launch infrastructure in Cape Canaveral. The company is hoping that investors will take that speed-bump in stride.
Just like SpaceX, which went public in June, Blue Origin’s business model is increasingly targeting sources of revenue outside of its launch business.
- In January, Blue Origin unveiled TeraWave, an enterprise satcom network aiming to deliver 6-Tbps connectivity through a constellation of 5,400+ satellites.
- The same month, Blue Origin paused its space-tourism flights to shift focus to the Moon. The company has received a range of NASA contracts to support the agency’s lunar ambitions, including:
- In 2023, Blue won a $3.4B contract to support crewed lunar landings.
- In May, Blue won a $188M contract to launch two rovers to the lunar South Pole by 2028.
- Blue has also been steadily building its spacecraft and space systems business lines, including its Blue Ring highly maneuverable spacecraft—which is expected to launch for the first time this year—as well as the company’s work on Orbital Reef, a proposed CLD in partnership with Sierra Space and others.
Enough to go round: While the new capital would, for the first time, put a firm number to Blue’s valuation, it would also highlight the huge gulf between it and rival SpaceX—whose market cap is hovering an order of magnitude larger at ~$2T.
Despite—or perhaps because of—this gulf, investors seem to be buying into Bezos’ idea that Blue Origin could one-day out-perform Amazon’s valuation, which is currently at $2.6T.
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The company’s AMP-1 system 3D-printed liver and kidney tissue—the first time tissue for both of those organs has been manufactured in space, according to the company. In addition, the company printed cartilage tissue and more than two dozen nerve-repair implants.
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