Financial Times article notes: SpaceX: how Elon Musk's new rocket could transform the space race. Excerpt:
With the power to carry as much as 100 tons into low orbit around the Earth, his admirers claim Musk is about to transform the economics of the launch business.
"It's game over for the existing launch companies," says Peter Diamandis, a U.S. space entrepreneur. "There's no vehicle out there on the drawing board that could compete"...
"If you're not careful, SpaceX will be the only game in town," says Fatih Ozmen, co-founder of Sierra Nevada, a private U.S. company that has been contracted by Nasa to fly cargo to the International Space Station. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' private space company, makes a blunter claim: SpaceX could end up with "monopolistic control" of U.S. deep space exploration.
Musk's venture has put itself in a commanding position in the new commercial space industry with surprising speed. It is only 13 years since it became the first private company to launch its own rocket into orbit, breaking into an industry previously dominated by nation states. It has also leapt ahead of contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, whose joint venture, United Launch Alliance, had carried the flag for U.S. space launch – though using Russian engines.
SpaceX's ascendancy has been underlined over the past six months by a striking series of wins.
No doubt Musk is really a business genius and he is now surpassing Bezo and has become the richest man in the world.
Actually Elon Musk's SpaceX just crossed a threshold that very few private companies ever reach. Per Jeff Brown:
"No, I'm not talking about a manned mission to the Moon or Mars. SpaceX just became a "centicorn." That's a private company worth more than $100 billion. We normally read about "unicorns" – private companies with $1 billion valuations. This is 100X that.
The latest valuation was determined through a secondary offering of up to $755 million in stock. SpaceX agreed with existing investors and insiders to the sale at $560 a share, resulting in the $100 billion valuation.
Secondary offerings like this are becoming far more common these days. With private companies staying private for such extended periods of time, many early investors and even employees want to have some liquidity by selling their shares. They just don't want to wait until the time of the initial public offering (IPO) to cash out.
In the case of SpaceX, its Series A raise happened back in 2002. It's hard to believe that the company has been private now for almost two decades with no indications of an IPO. It's also understandable why some want to take part or all of their investment off the table.
Consider this – I saw an estimate that SpaceX revenues for this year will come in around $1.6 billion. At a $100 billion valuation, SpaceX is valued at more than 62 times annual sales. Yes, SpaceX is a revolutionary company that is still in high growth mode, but 62 times sales?!?
For comparison, let's look at a company like Lockheed Martin. It is valued at about the same: $108 billion. That said, it will generate $68 billion in sales this year and $7.2 billion in free cash flow. That's an enterprise value-to-sales ratio of 1.63 compared to SpaceX at 62."
Indeed, the valuation for SpaceX has become insanely expensive but still people are just wanting to chase it at any cost. Fortunately I got in a few years ago with a much reasonable valuation and my initial investment in SpaceX has already more than doubled even before its IPO. Who knows how many times this may eventually turn out to be! I'm just happy to be with the genius Musk to ride his space venture for as long as possible. 💪😇
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