Say what you will about Elon Musk, but raising money for his companies has never been a problem.
Tesla (TSLA) for example has raised a total of $20.2 billion in funding over 36 rounds, according to Crunchbase.
Musk has become adept at garnering foreign investment dollars in recent years. Most of the funding the nearly $700 billion company has received recently has come from China.
In May 2020, the company secured $565 million in debt financing for its Shanghai factory. In 2017, Tesla raised $1.7 billion in equity financing from China's Tencent (TCEHY) in exchange for 5% of the company.
Obviously, the need for outside funding is diminished when a company like Tesla reaches its exit velocity, which is why the company hasn't needed financing, either debt or equity, in a couple of years.
Tesla has established itself as the EV market leader in the U.S., but Musk's other big ticket company, SpaceX is still fighting for its spot, and the company is looking for financing to take the company to the next level.
SpaceX Seeks New Funding, Huge Valuation
SpaceX wants to raise up to $1.725 billion in new capital, at a price of $70 per share, according to a company-wide email sent Friday that was obtained by CNBC.
This comes after the company executed a 10-for-1 stock split in February that reduced the private company's common stock to $56 per share.
A funding round that size would bring the space exploration company's valuation to about $127 billion.
The company is also conducting a secondary sale to company insiders and existing shareholders for up to $750 million in common stock.
The new round of funding comes as competition for federal space contracts heats up with rival Boeing (BA) successfully completing a test mission last week after numerous delays.
The timing of the funding round is also a little curious as it was recently reported that SpaceX paid $250,000 to a former employee after Musk was accused of sexual harassment.
Musk allegedly exposed himself to a flight attendant on a private jet owned by SpaceX and propositioned her, according to a published report.
The alleged incident occurred in 2016 on a private jet owned by Musk’s aerospace company, Business Insider reported.
"And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue," Musk responded.
Boeing Puts Pressure on SpaceX
Over the weekend Boeing's CST-100 Starliner passenger spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station, completing a mission that it began two years ago.
The unmanned capsule docked with the space station 26 hours after being launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
"Today’s successful docking of the Starliner is another important step in this rehearsal for sending astronauts into orbit safely and reliably," Boeing Defense, Space and Security President and CEO Ted Colbert said, according to Simple Flying.
The mission tested the end-to-end capabilities of Starliner from launch to docking, atmospheric re-entry, with a desert landing in the western United States, NASA said Thursday.
The capsule docked with the ISS carrying more than 800 pounds of cargo, including about 500 pounds of NASA cargo and crew supplies.
NASA hired Boeing to develop spacecraft that could handle human flights to the space station. At the same time, the company also hired rival SpaceX to do the same thing.
However, SpaceX has been the only company capable of producing a vehicle to complete the trip to the space station so far.
Earlier this year, NASA awarded SpaceX three additional flights and in April, the company, which is led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, launched another crew to the station using a Crew Dragon vehicle on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was the fifth NASA crew mission since 2020.
While SpaceX is ahead of Boeing in terms of successful missions, Boeing does have the capital to go SpaceX a run for its money thanks to Boeing's legacy aircraft business.
