Jul. 17—SpaceX, the privately held company that's developing its Starship rocket system and Starlink network of communications satellites in Texas, is worth nearly $150 billion after a secondary share sale of existing shares.
The new valuation launches Elon Musk's SpaceX past Boeing Co. and Raytheon Technologies to become the most valuable aerospace and defense company in the United States. Boeing's market capitalization was just more than $128 billion Monday morning while Raytheon's was nearing $141 billion.
SpaceX's valuation rose after an arrangement with insiders last week to sell shares totaling $750 million to new investors at $81 each, according to a copy of the purchase offer obtained by CNBC. In December, the company sold shares at $77 each, a price that valued the company at $137 billion. SpaceX typically performs such secondary sales about twice a year to give employees and other shareholders a chance to sell stock.
Founded in Hawthorne, Calif., in 2002, SpaceX has carved out a near monopoly in the global rocket launching market. Its Falcon 9 rocket soars into the skies almost every week from Florida, transporting humans to the International Space Station and carrying Starlink satellites into orbit.
SpaceX's satellite-internet business is its main driver of valuation. It launched nearly 5,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit and boasts more than 1.5 million subscribers that make up most of its valuation. Last month, the Defense Department announced it would buy Starlink satellite internet terminals for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.
Musk recently said the company has invested $3 billion into developing the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, near Brownsville, since 2014. There, it has been testing the giant Starship to deliver Starlink satellites into orbit and to return NASA astronauts to the moon for the first time in half a century. Musk is also hoping the company's largest in-state investment results in someday flying humans to Mars.
In late April, Musk said he expects the company will spend another $2 billion on the Starship program to attempt five launches by year's end. Its launch schedule is on hold, however, after SpaceX's first Starship flight from South Texas on April 20 ended with an out-of-control ship exploding over the Gulf of Mexico.
The rocket's powerful Raptor engines blasted concrete and metal across 385 acres, touched off wildfires and kicked up "a plume of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site."
Immediately after the launch, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the Starship program as it oversees an accident investigation. While Musk aims to launch again in the upcoming months, he must wait for the FAA to approve another flight.
In the meantime, SpaceX has since joined the FAA as co-defendants in a federal lawsuit over the Starship program. The lawsuit filed by environmental and indigenous groups challenges the FAA's "review and approval" of the company's launch plans and wants the federal agency to conduct an environmental impact statement, which could delay launches for years.
In addition to its Starbase facility in South Texas, SpaceX operates a rocket-engine development and testing site in McGregor, near Waco.
To capitalize on the growing satellite-internet market, the company is also building a 521,000-square-foot structure outside Austin in Bastrop County. Emails between SpaceX and Bastrop County officials indicate the company plans to build a manufacturing plant at the site for Starlink. Construction began in May.
In addition to overseeing SpaceX, Musk is the chief executive of Tesla, whose headquarters is in Austin. The facility, known as Gigafactory Texas, has been making Model Y sport utility vehicles and is expected to begin producing its long-delayed Cybertruck this year.
In January, Tesla said it planned to spend about $775 million to expand the factory to include a cathode facility, cell test lab, die shop, drive unit and an undisclosed 693,093-square-foot facility. In March, Tesla broke ground on a $375 million lithium refinery in Robstown, near Corpus Christi. The company plans to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide from the facility by year's end for use in electric vehicles.
Musk also is the founder of San Francisco brain-computer startup Neuralink, which plans to build a 37-acre facility in Travis County.
And he leads The Boring Co., a tunneling company partly owned by SpaceX and that's now based in Pflugerville, near Austin. The company is setting up an 80,000-square-foot warehouse in Bastrop County, directly across the street from the new SpaceX facility.
The Boring Co. has been attempting projects across the area and remains in talks with the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority to construct a tunnel loop to ferry passengers between San Antonio International Airport and downtown.
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