Elon Musk’s SpaceX, With a $33.3B Valuation, Is About to Eclipse Tesla
Investors are lining up to get a piece of SpaceX and its massive projected revenues from Starlink. Today it's poised to eclipses Tesla in value. | Source: (i) REUTERS / Thom Baur / File Photo (ii) REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo ; Edited by CCN.com
By CCN.com: As markets close Friday, Elon Musk’s aerospace venture SpaceX is poised to eclipse his car company Tesla in market value for the first time. Tesla’s stock is trading down 1.5% at press time with a $33.01 billion market cap attached. According to CNBC , SpaceX is valued at $33.3 billion.
SpaceX boasts an updated market valuation after a recent fundraising round. CNBC’s Michael Sheetz reports that a recent filing shows SpaceX’s latest capital infusion was $536 million at a price of $204 a share.
That brings the total amount of money invested in SpaceX this year to an impressive $1 billion-plus. The company has had no trouble finding the cash to pursue its ambitious plan to wire up the entire planet with internet via satellite and meanwhile colonize Mars.
In its most recent fundraising round, investor demand was so great that the company reportedly could have raised an additional $400 million.
Though SpaceX was founded in 2002, a year before Tesla, it has taken the aerospace and rocket manufacturer the better part of two decades to overtake Tesla’s market value.
SpaceX Starlink Revenues Could Be 2x NASA’s Budget
Investors are lining up to get a piece of SpaceX because of the projected revenues from building Starlink. The 12,000 satellite “constellation” will be capable of transmitting hi-speed Wi-Fi to provide consumers with internet service. If it succeeds, revenue from Starlink could be as much as double NASA’s entire budget.
SpaceX’s cutting-edge development of aerospace tech like reusable rockets means it can assemble its satellite internet system at unprecedented low prices. Estimates have placed the entire cost at $10 billion. It could rake in as much as $40 billion a year (about what AT&T makes with Direct TV) to pay back investors and fund its other projects. Like Mars.
The 2024 Manned Mission to Mars
In 2016, Amazon’s “competitive intelligence tools” subsidiary reported SpaceX has one of the most popular corporate websites for a privately held company in the world. At the time, its website had more unique visitors than any “unicorn” company on Earth.
The excitement for a 2024 manned mission to Mars is palpable. Much of the technology that it will take to get there doesn’t currently exist. SpaceX will have to invent it. But with the aerospace company’s stellar engineering track record, strong projected revenues from Starlink, and the enthusiasm investors have for backing a Mars colony, the company’s prospects appear to be out of this world.
