Blue Origin is bringing in outside investors for the first time: it could be valued at $130 billion

Jeff Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, is conducting its first round of external funding. During this round, the company plans to raise about $10 billion, bringing its total valuation to $130 billion, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.

According to sources interviewed by the TV channel, Bezos himself (who will invest about $2 billion in the company), the hedge fund Coatue Management (about $4 billion), and several other major investors plan to participate in the funding round.

Based on a valuation of $130 billion, Blue Origin would rank among the top 100 companies in the S&P 500 and be worth more than many U.S. firms in the aerospace and defense sectors, including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin (which, together with Boeing, owns a space launch company), Honeywell Aerospace, and others, Barron’s notes.

CNBC notes that in May, Bezos said in an interview with the network that Blue Origin was considering the possibility of attracting outside investment, but that hasn’t happened yet: “Now is probably the right time to start thinking about the future and bringing in outside investors,” he noted.

As a result, Bezos’s space company completed its first round of funding a few weeks after Elon Musk’s SpaceX went public. In June, SpaceX raised nearly $86 billion, including underwriters’ options, making it the largest IPO in history and briefly turning Musk into a trillionaire. Since then, SpaceX shares have surged 66% from the offering price; however, by July 8, they had returned to their first-day trading levels—trading at around $150 per share, or about 11% above the IPO price.

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