SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace giant, has begun discussions about a private sale of shares at a price that values 100% of the company at more than $175 billion, Bloomberg reports citing sources familiar with the operation. The most valuable startup in the United States is negotiating a buyback plan for employees and minorities that could range between 500 and 750 million, which would involve the incorporation of new investors into the company.
Specifically, SpaceX is considering purchasing the shares for approximately $95 each. The terms and size of the offer could change depending on the interest of both inside sellers and buyers. A valuation of 175,000 million offers a 16% premium compared to the 150,000 million at which the company was valued after another buyback this summer.
SpaceX is owned by Elon Musk with a stake that exceeds 50% of the capital, although it is owned by the venture capital units of Founders Fund (10%), Fidelity VC (10%), Google Ventures (Alphabet), Baillie Gifford and Valor Equity Partners. Musk’s fortune would rise again with this new transaction, although the bulk of his assets remain in Tesla, where he maintains 13% of the capital valued at about $100 billion at the current time.
In the world’s top 100 companies
If listed on the stock exchange, the increase in valuation would make SpaceX one of the 75 largest companies in the world by capitalization, at the level of T-Mobile USA (179 billion), Nike Inc. (177 billion), China Mobile (176 billion ).
Inditex, the most valuable Spanish company on the stock market, is worth around 130 billion, a figure similar to that of the French company Airbus, a potential competitor of SpaceX in the business of aerospace activities, which is owned by the French governments. . , Germany, Italy and Spain.
Representatives of SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp, dominate the commercial space launch services market with its Falcon rockets. The company sends satellites and payloads into orbit for international private sector clients, as well as for NASA and other government agencies of the US Government, which has subcontracted these activities.
Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX is on track to generate revenue of around $9 billion in 2023 from its rocket launch business, Bloomberg News reported last month, with annual sales forecast to rise to around 15 billion in 2024.
SpaceX also operates its internet and telecommunications service from space, Starlink, made up of a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit. In fact, the company is also considering a spin-off of this subsidiary to carry out an initial public offering of shares to list Starlink as soon as the end of 2024, in an attempt to capitalize on the strong demand for communications through space.
