SpaceX Gets $1 Billion Investment From Google And FidelityBusiness 2 Community
James Kosur January 20, 2015
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now valued at $10 billion. The company’s new valuation was revealed on Tuesday when the company announced $1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity.
The company, based around the development of Space Exploration and Low-Orbit Technologies, was funded with a 7.5 percent stake by Google and a 2.5 percent stake from Fidelity.
The $1 billion funding round was announced on the SpaceX website on Tuesday. “This funding will be used to support continued innovation in the areas of space transport, reusability and satellite manufacturing,” the statement said.
Following that statement the team at Google had this to say about the new partnership:
“Space-based applications, like imaging satellites, can help people more easily access important information, so we’re excited to support SpaceX’s growth as it develops new launch technologies.”
Already invested in SpaceX are Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn.
The $1 billion investment from Google and Fidelity comes at a time when Elon Musk is preparing to launch a massive communications and imagine network of satellite to be located all around the planet.
Next up for SpaceX is a new engineering office that will open in the Seattle area. That office will be focused on the development and manufacturing of commercial satellites.
“We’re going try to do for satellites what we’ve done for rockets,” Musk said during an interview with Bloomberg, “and see if we can make some improvements to satellites.”
In true Elon Musk fashion, he revealed that “most satellites” are primitive in that they are built on proven technologies that are a decade old by launch time. “By the time satellites are launched, they are really outdated,” he said.
Elon Musk this week announced a $10 billion plan to build an internet service that relies on low-orbit satellites, he hopes to build that network to extend from Earth to Mars as part of his bigger plans for Mars colonization.
Don Harrison, Google’s vice president of corporate development, will join SpaceX’s board.
[Photo Credit: Heisenberg Media]
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/spacex-gets-1-billion-investment-google-fidelity-001106095.html
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