Blue Origin Opens Door to Outside Investors for the First Time, Hitting $130 Billion Valuation

Jeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin is making its first move to bring in external funding, raising roughly $10 billion in a round that values the company at $130 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Bezos himself is chipping in $2 billion, while hedge fund Coatue Management is contributing about $4 billion. The remaining $4 billion has drawn strong interest, with several major institutional investors expected to join.

The news comes just weeks after Elon Musk's SpaceX pulled off a record-breaking initial public offering, raising nearly $86 billion and valuing the company at roughly $2 trillion. That IPO made Musk a trillionaire on paper and underscored the growing appetite for private space companies. Blue Origin, which Bezos founded in 2000 and had previously funded entirely through sales of his Amazon stock, competes with SpaceX in heavy-lift rockets, lunar landers, and satellite internet - though Musk holds a commanding lead in most of those areas.

Bezos told CNBC in May that Blue Origin was "considering" outside investment, adding, "It's a good time, actually, to start thinking about the future and bring on some other outside investors." Since stepping down as Amazon CEO in 2021, Bezos has focused more on Blue Origin, and he said in 2024 he believes the rocket company will one day be bigger than Amazon. With this funding round, that vision is getting a serious financial boost.

Source: CNBC