SpaceX, the rocket company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has raised over $337 million in equity financing, according to Reuters.
SpaceX’s valuation reached $100 billion during a secondary share offering in October 2021, with Alphabet Inc and Fidelity Investments among its investors. In April, it raised $1.16 billion in equity funding.
Musk, who also runs Tesla Inc, Neuralink, and Boring Co, said earlier this year that SpaceX’s Starship rockets will land on Mars long before 2030.
What you should know about SpaceX
Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of lowering space transportation costs and revolutionizing the aerospace industry.
Musk first funded SpaceX with his own money, but after gaining enough experience, he was able to secure millions of dollars from NASA to build his rockets and spacecraft, as well as to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, as well as multiple rocket engines, the Dragon cargo, and crew spacecraft, and the Starlink communications satellites, are all manufactured by SpaceX.
Space X was the first private company to launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit, as well as the first to launch and dock a crewed spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS).
In the commercial rocket business, the company competes with former Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos’ space enterprise Blue Origin and billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Civilians have been successfully launched into space by all three rocket companies. Morgan Stanley estimates that the space economy will be worth $1 trillion by 2040.
