Blue Origin raises $10B at $130B valuation

For the first 25 years of Blue Origin’s existence, its founder, Jeff Bezos, solely funded the space company from the fortune he made at Amazon. No longer. Blue Origin has signed a term sheet to raise its first outside capital as part of a $10 billion funding round that will value the company at $130 billion before the funding, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Coatue is expected to lead the round with a $4 billion check, while Bezos has committed to put in $2 billion as part of the round, the person said. Blue Origin is in discussions with other investors about contributing the remainder of the funding in the round, the person said. The round suggests that a rocket explosion that Blue Origin experienced on its launchpad in Florida in late May has not deterred outside investors from backing the company. Prior to that setback, the company had launched and landed its reusable New Glenn rocket twice—key milestones on its path to building a self-sustaining business. In January, it announced an effort dubbed TeraWave to build orbital data centers, which could provide Blue Origin with a lucrative new revenue stream. And the company has contracts with NASA to deliver astronauts and rovers to the moon. “You’re going to see a lot of Blue Origin hardware on the Moon in the coming years,” the person familiar with the matter said. The success of the June IPO of SpaceX, Blue Origin’s biggest competitor, also brought considerable investor attention to the space category. https://techcrunch.com/20..