Blue Origin seeks $10 billion at $130 billion valuation, CNBC reports

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is raising about $10 billion in its first external fundraising round, valuing the rocket company at $130 billion, CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The prospective financing would bring large outside investors into a company long associated with Bezos’ personal backing, shortly after SpaceX completed a record-setting public share sale.

Bezos is expected to put $2 billion into the round, while hedge fund Coatue Management is set to contribute about $4 billion, according to CNBC, which cited people familiar with the private details. The remaining $4 billion has drawn significant demand, and several major investors are expected to join the transaction, those people told CNBC.

The round would mark Blue Origin’s first outside funding, according to CNBC. In practical terms, an outside fundraising round sells a stake in a private company to new or existing investors at an agreed valuation. The reported $130 billion figure represents the price implied by the capital being raised and the ownership investors would receive, rather than a public market price set by exchange trading.

Blue Origin, founded by Bezos, operates in the capital-intensive space industry, where launch systems, spacecraft, engines and related infrastructure require large outlays before revenue scales. The reported financing would provide fresh capital while establishing a market-based reference point for the company’s value among private investors.

The timing follows SpaceX’s initial public offering last month. CNBC reported that Elon Musk’s SpaceX raised nearly $86 billion, including the underwriters’ option, making it the largest IPO on record and making Musk a trillionaire.

An underwriters’ option, often called an overallotment option, allows banks managing an IPO to sell additional shares if demand supports it. CNBC said SpaceX’s total proceeds included that option, which increased the size of the offering beyond the base deal.

Bezos had signaled in May that Blue Origin was weighing outside capital. He told CNBC at the time that the company was “considering” external investment, but that it had not yet occurred.

“It’s a good time, actually, to start thinking about the future and bring on some other outside investors,” Bezos told CNBC in May.

CNBC said the people who described the current fundraising plans asked not to be named because the details are private. Blue Origin has not been reported by CNBC as having completed the round, and the report described the remaining investor participation as expected rather than finalized.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.