Blue Origin funding round makes Bezos world’s second-richest person
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' net worth is estimated at $368 billion / Photo: Shutterstock.com / Photo Agency
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has risen to second place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after a funding round valued his space company Blue Origin at $140 billion, thereby boosting his fortune by $87 billion to $368 billion, Bloomberg reports. Blue Origin brought in outside investors for the first time, having previously been funded by Bezos alone.
Details
Blue Origin’s new $140 billion valuation increased Bezos’ fortune to $368.5 billion, Bloomberg writes. That put the Amazon founder ahead of Alphabet cofounder Larry Page, who is worth $298 billion, on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bezos now trails only Elon Musk, whose fortune Bloomberg estimates at $1.02 trillion. Rounding out the five richest people in the world are Sergey Brin, with a fortune of $277 billion, and Michael Dell, at $265 billion.
The fortunes of the world’s two richest people, Musk and Bezos, are up 117% and 47% versus a year ago, respectively, according to Bloomberg's estimates. Bloomberg attributes much of the gains to investor interest in the space industry. SpaceX founder Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after the aerospace and AI company went public in June, with his fortune increasing by $405 billion year to date.
Blue Origin funding
Blue Origin launched the outside funding round in July. The company was seeking to raise $10 billion at a pre-money valuation of $130 billion, Yahoo Finance reports. Investment firm Coatue Management led the round with a commitment of around $4 billion. Bezos himself invested another $2 billion in the space company. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said last week that the round was oversubscribed, Quartz writes. Following the round, Bezos owns 93% of Blue Origin, according to Bloomberg.
The Wall Street Journal estimates that Bezos has invested around $30 billion in Blue Origin since founding it in 2000. On Wednesday, Bezos also said that Blue Origin might eventually pursue an IPO. The company could go public several years from now, he said. “I see the financial future of Blue with some clarity now,” Bezos noted.
The SpaceX IPO this summer was the largest in stock market history. Musk’s company raised $75 billion at a valuation of $1.77 trillion.
