(July 8): Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin LLC is embarking on its first external fundraising round, according to people familiar with the matter, seizing on the enthusiasm ginned up by archrival SpaceX’s record initial public offering.
Blue Origin is seeking to raise US$10 billion at a valuation of US$130 billion, excluding the new funds, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Coatue Management LLC is expected to lead the round, investing US$4 billion, the person said.
Representatives for Blue Origin and Coatue declined to comment. The New York Times’ DealBook reported the fundraising plan earlier Wednesday.
The talks are taking place at a delicate moment for Blue Origin, which so far has relied solely on funding from Bezos. The company’s New Glenn rocket, intended to compete with Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 in launching payloads to space, has flown only a few times and is temporarily grounded following a launchpad explosion in May.
In January, Blue Origin called off flights of its smaller New Shepard, a rocket used for minutes-long trips to zero gravity by space tourists, to focus on the development of its moon lander for Nasa and other lunar technologies. The company also announced a plan for TeraWave, a communication network in low-Earth orbit with more than 5,400 satellites, with a first launch expected late next year.
Before the May explosion derailed its plans, Blue Origin had been targeting as many as a dozen launches this year for its heavy-lift rocket New Glenn, CEO Dave Limp told Bloomberg Television in April.
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The company, which had its first successful New Glenn launch in January 2025, intends to resume flights of the rocket before the end of the year.
The talks regarding new funding come just weeks after SpaceX debuted on the public markets with a listing that raised US$86 billion, the largest IPO in history.
Bezos, 62, is the sole shareholder in Blue Origin, which he started in 2000 and has funded primarily through sales of Amazon.com Inc stock.
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