Elon Musk's SpaceX Nears $150 Billion Valuation Amid Twitter Troubles: Here's What We Know So Far
As Twitter continues to decrease in valuation, Elon Musk seems to be covering the losses with revenue from one of his star companies, SpaceX. The latter is all set to reach a valuation of $150 billion. The company has decided to sell a part of its insider-held stock to a group of new and existing investors at $81 a share, which is approximately a 4% increase from SpaceX's previous tender offer that valued the shares at $77 per share, per The Wall Street Journal.
It is worth noting that SpaceX has been a private company ever since it was launched back in 2002. However, it often holds secondary sales in order to let employees cash out the stocks that were granted to them as part of their compensation packages. If the space-tech giant reaches the $150 billion valuation mark in the coming days, it would make SpaceX one of the most valuable privately-owned companies in the world.
How will SpaceX reach the $150 billion valuation?
SpaceX is set to sell a block of insider-held stock to investors at a value of $81 per share, as aforementioned. The total valuation of stock sales is said to reach $750 million, which in turn, will take the market valuation of the company to its aimed $150 billion mark.
How does SpaceX earn revenues?
Ever since its inception in the early 2000s, SpaceX has been focusing on developing space-faring vessels in the form of reusable rockets. Over the years, the company developed its own reusable rockets and it now handles contracts from various commercial satellite operators, government organizations, and NASA. These contracts fetch SpaceX a good amount of revenue although the exact numbers cannot be reported as the company does not publish its financial reports publicly.
Another major source of income for the company is its Starlink project. It is SpaceX's satellite communication service that has been growing since the company started working on it in 2014. Although the first batch of Starlink satellites was launched only in 2019, the company now has over 3,500 satellites in low Earth orbit. These provide internet connectivity to remote areas.
Why is SpaceX's success important to Elon Musk?
The success of SpaceX is important to Elon Musk because he owns a 42% stake in it and due to the continual downfall of Twitter, which Musk bought last year, he needs to fall back on SpaceX's revenues. According to recent reports by Fidelity Investments, Twitter's valuation is now at one-third of its original valuation of $44 billion at which Musk bought the company. Moreover, with the recent launch of Meta's Threads, which is set to rival Twitter and has already garnered over 100 million users in its first few days, things are not looking good for Musk's social platform. In fact, the business magnate himself admitted that the timing of buying Twitter "was terrible" in an April 2023 interview. Additionally, Musk told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that "it remains to be seen whether this was financially smart -- it currently is not."
What is Tesla's position?
Tesla has been one of the most successful ventures for Elon Musk. The EV giant has continued to grow in the market, dominating the electric car industry. The stock prices of Tesla rose 157% from the start of this year and earned the company a market valuation of a whopping $871 billion, per Daily Mail. Although Musk had to cash out most of his stakes in Tesla to provide the required funds to purchase Twitter, he continues to be the largest individual shareholder in the company with a stake of around 13%.