Yahoo Finance 'There's a lot of FOMO' with SpaceX:' Expert on its $100B valuation
SpaceX, the private company which recently launched an all-civilian crew to space, reportedly just surpassed a $100 billion valuation.
Shares of the Elon Musk–led company were sold on the secondary market at an offer price of $560 each, according to CNBC.
SpaceX now has higher market cap than the estimated $97 billion valuation of Lockheed Martin (LMT), the largest defense contractor in the world.
"There's a lot of FOMO right now with SpaceX," Robert Jacobson, founder of Space Advisors and author of Space is Open for Business, told Yahoo Finance. "There has been, and probably will continue to be."
Jacobson says the reason why SpaceX has earned a $100 billion valuation is because of the progress the company has made with its fully reusable spacecraft Starship and its satellite internet constellation Starlink.
Speculation about the company's satellite unit spinning off in an IPO has been circulating since prior to the pandemic. There is no indication of when or if that could happen, but if it does, it would likely be massively sought after.
"It might sound crazy, but I think you could IPO a Starlink on its own with a minimum valuation of $100 billion. Because you're talking about a whole new network of internet connectivity to reach the globe," said Jacobson.
SpaceX did not respond to an inquiry for comment on the valuation.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA), founded SpaceX in 2002. The space related company has collaborated closely with NASA over the years.
"SpaceX's success — it's not because of NASA, but NASA has helped them thrive. But on the flip side, if NASA said we want these capabilities and we're just going to go to the incumbents, it would've cost much more money and taken much more time, if you could even get to the same results as SpaceX," said Jacobson.
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