SpaceX increases over $ 1 billion through two funding rounds
WASHINGTON – SpaceX has increased over $ 1 billion in new capital this year as it embarks on the deployment of its Starlink broadband constellation, according to regulatory applications published Friday.
The launch provider put the satellite operator up $ 486.2 million in one round, and $ 535.7 million in another, the company said on May 24 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The archives show that SpaceX sold anything other than $ 18.8 million of the shares available between the two rounds. The company increased a total of NOK 1,022 billion.
SpaceX is currently building two capital-intensive projects ̵[ads1]1; the fully reusable Super Heavy Booster with the Starship upper stage, and Starlink's broadband mega-constellation of up to 12,000 satellites.
In 2017, SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk said the Starship and Super Heavy Financing Plan – then called the Big Falcon Rocket – was replacing SpaceX's current Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets with the new launch system. In a conversation with journalists last week, Musk SpaceX said it could also use Starlink revenue to fund the new launch system.
How SpaceX would fund Starlink has been the subject of discussion in the satellite industry. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and COO last year estimated that the constellation would cost about $ 10 billion .
SpaceX generated $ 2 billion in launch revenue last year, according to a May 19 report from Jefferies Financial Group.
Musk did not provide an up-to-date number for Starlink, but it was given launch revenue and capital increase giving the company enough resources to carry out the massive project.
"At this point, it seems that we have sufficient capital to come to an operational level," he said of Starlink.
Musk said Starlink needs about 800 satellites to reach "substantial operational capability" and about 1,000 satellites to become "economically viable."
Musk said Starlink does not need 12,000 satellites to succeed, rather than SpaceX being able to scale the constellation up to that number based on demand. Ideally, SpaceX will have Starship and Super Heavy in service "when we're anywhere near 12,000 satellites," he said, giving another way to reduce the cost of deploying the constellation.
SpaceX's recently revealed rounds followed an unusual filing last month which showed that SpaceX had risen to just $ 44 million after offering to sell $ 400 million in stocks and equity. Musk suggested that the information was outdated.
"I don't want to say that our funding rounds were short," he said. "In fact, they have been overwritten for SpaceX."
