Jeff Bezos’s rocket company is finally opening its doors to outside money.
Blue Origin is raising $10 billion in private capital, according to the NYT’s DealBook newsletter. The round would value the company at $130 billion. Coatue Management is expected to lead with $4 billion. Another $4 billion would come from institutional investors. Bezos himself chips in $2 billion.
This is a first for Blue Origin. Founded in 2000, the company has survived almost entirely on Bezos’s personal fortune — he’s been pouring several billion dollars a year into it. But SpaceX raised $85 billion in its IPO this year and hit a $2 trillion valuation. Blue Origin can’t compete for talent without offering comparable stock options.
The company has big plans: super heavy lift rockets (New Glenn), lunar landers, and two megaconstellations — TeraWave for enterprise internet and Project Sunrise, a constellation of up to 51,600 satellites. All of that costs tens to hundreds of billions.
Things got harder in late May when New Glenn exploded during a static fire test, taking out the only launch pad. Bezos and CEO Dave Limp have moved fast on cleanup and rebuilding. Bezos says he wants New Glenn flying again before year’s end — most observers think 12 months is more realistic.
The urgency makes sense if Bezos was closing financial deals. Sources say he’s grown tired of self-funding the company. Nearly a decade ago he hired Bob Smith to make Blue Origin self-sufficient. That effort largely failed.
Now Bezos is betting that outside capital — and the pressure that comes with it — can do what his own billions couldn’t.
