Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin weighs first external fundraising
Rocket maker’s chief tells staff it will need outside capital to meet ambitious launch plans
Blue Origin is weighing its first external fundraising as part of a push by Jeff Bezos’s rocket venture to hit ambitious launch targets and tap investor appetite boosted by SpaceX’s upcoming initial public offering.
Chief executive Dave Limp told employees at a recent all-hands meeting that the company would require outside investment if it were to significantly increase its launch cadence, according to details of the meeting from two people who attended.
He said it would “take a lot of capital” to achieve the number of rocket launches Blue Origin has targeted — more money than would be available with “just one investor”, the people added.
Blue Origin has set ambitious launch targets after reaching orbit with New Glenn, a 98-metre tall heavy-lift rocket, for the first time in January 2025. It is competing with SpaceX for large commercial contracts and to develop a lunar lander for Nasa’s Artemis programme.
Blue Origin is considering fundraising as SpaceX, which dominates the space launch market, gears up to list on the public market as early as June, with a valuation in excess of $1.75tn.
Limp told employees Blue Origin would have to demonstrate strong economics but that external funding was one option “on the table”, the people added.
Blue Origin declined to comment.
Limp was speaking to employees as he responded to questions on a new stock option plan. He said that similar to OpenAI and SpaceX, the group could use fundraising rounds to help staff exercise stock options. “We wrote this plan intentionally to allow for that,” he said.
He said the company needed to be “ready for external funding” and he was confident in strong interest from outside investors.
Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, is the company’s sole shareholder and its primary source of financial backing. He has largely used the sale of Amazon stock — he owns nearly 9 per cent of the group, according to proxy filings — to fund the rocket maker.
Blue Origin is spending heavily as it scales operations including building an 800,000 sq ft manufacturing facility and a second launch pad in Florida. It is also investing in the testing and development of its reusable rocket booster and orbital upper stage.
The company is expected to spend roughly $4.8bn this year, according to analysts at Capstone, a Washington-based consulting firm. It estimates the group has spent nearly $28bn since its inception.
Josh Parker, an analyst at Capstone, said Blue Origin had faced significant cost increases in recent years as it developed New Glenn in a “brutal inflationary environment”. He said competition for talent with SpaceX had also forced up salaries.
Limp, a former Amazon executive who took charge of Blue Origin in late 2023, told employees that he did not expect Bezos would ever sell the business. He did not rule out a potential IPO in the future, the people added.
Blue Origin’s CEO in April said the group was planning between eight and 12 launches in total this year with New Glenn. A target of 14 launches had earlier been shared with employees internally.
He said the group had a longer-term goal of hitting 100 launches a year, with a significant portion of these expected to help build out its TeraWave satellite communications network for business customers.
