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SpaceX does a couple NASA launches a year, for which they make 100-200 million each and have to actually provide a service that costs them a decent fraction of

SpaceX does a couple NASA launches a year, for which they make 100-200 million each and have to actually provide a service that costs them a decent fraction of that cost. They earlier this year had an investment round worth about a billion, which was all dedicated to R&D for Starship and Starlink. Total external investments are around $19 billion [1] So yeah, some of the NASA dollars probably provide profit to the company that they reinvest in R&D. But a larger portion comes from external investment specifically for R&D. [1] https://craft.co/spacex/funding-rounds https://craft.co/spacex/funding-rounds

LightG 5y ago
Fair points. But where do you think that $19billion came from? Looking forward to the downvote :-)
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > where do you think that $19billion came from? Most dollars that have been paid to a SpaceX bank account, by investors or customers, came from private parties. NASA was indisputably critical in enabling SpaceX. But SpaceX was not taxpayer funded if that word doesn't encompass virtually all economic activity in America. Today, SpaceX could do fine without any NASA contracts. Naturally, they help. But there is a lot of demand for launch, in part due to the price competition SpaceX started.
- SECProto 5y ago
  The 5.9 billion (19 was a typo) was investment capital. Per the source, investors were: Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Scott Banister, DFJ Growth, Google, Rizvi Traverse Management, Fidelity Investments, Threshold, Rothenberg Ventures, Elon Musk, ACE & Company, Bill Lee, David Sacks, Valor Equity Partners, Sherpa Capital, Ecosystem Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Barney Pell, Vanedge Capital, Matthew Pritzker Company, Capricorn Venture Partners, Musket Research Associates, Tao Capital Partners, DBL Partners, Michael Cheung, Otter Rock Capital, NASA, Syren Capital Advisors, FoundersX Ventures, The K Fund, 7percent Ventures, Space Angels, Troy Capital Partners, M13, Seed-Resolute, Equidate, Microventures, Alphabet, G Squared, Peter Diamandis, Oakhouse Partners, Craft Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures, All Blue Capital, Bracket Capital, TH Capital, #adm VENTURES, ACE Capital, Threshold Ventures, Manhattan Venture Partners, Gigafund, Decacorn Capital, StraightPath Venture Partners, Zillow Group, Aeon Family of Funds, Team in Residence, ADIT Ventures, GC1 Ventures, Ernest H. Pomerantz, Lord Rothschild, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Most of these are non-taxpayer sources. NASA was small as far as I know, I don't recall seeing them listed in any of the recent (much larger) rounds. Unless you count the Ontario provincial government paying their teachers including their pensions, and the thus-funded pension fund investing in SpaceX.
Cipater 5y ago
You mean $1.9 billion, right?
simonh 5y ago
That linked page says $5.9bn in external funding. That may not include initial seed capital, but I don't think that was as much as a billion.
- SECProto 5y ago
  Thank you for the correction. I read 5.9 in the article and somehow typo'd with 19 in my comment.

LightG 5y ago

Fair points. But where do you think that $19billion came from? Looking forward to the downvote :-)

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> where do you think that $19billion came from? Most dollars that have been paid to a SpaceX bank account, by investors or customers, came from private parties. NASA was indisputably critical in enabling SpaceX. But SpaceX was not taxpayer funded if that word doesn't encompass virtually all economic activity in America. Today, SpaceX could do fine without any NASA contracts. Naturally, they help. But there is a lot of demand for launch, in part due to the price competition SpaceX started.
SECProto 5y ago
The 5.9 billion (19 was a typo) was investment capital. Per the source, investors were: Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Scott Banister, DFJ Growth, Google, Rizvi Traverse Management, Fidelity Investments, Threshold, Rothenberg Ventures, Elon Musk, ACE & Company, Bill Lee, David Sacks, Valor Equity Partners, Sherpa Capital, Ecosystem Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Barney Pell, Vanedge Capital, Matthew Pritzker Company, Capricorn Venture Partners, Musket Research Associates, Tao Capital Partners, DBL Partners, Michael Cheung, Otter Rock Capital, NASA, Syren Capital Advisors, FoundersX Ventures, The K Fund, 7percent Ventures, Space Angels, Troy Capital Partners, M13, Seed-Resolute, Equidate, Microventures, Alphabet, G Squared, Peter Diamandis, Oakhouse Partners, Craft Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures, All Blue Capital, Bracket Capital, TH Capital, #adm VENTURES, ACE Capital, Threshold Ventures, Manhattan Venture Partners, Gigafund, Decacorn Capital, StraightPath Venture Partners, Zillow Group, Aeon Family of Funds, Team in Residence, ADIT Ventures, GC1 Ventures, Ernest H. Pomerantz, Lord Rothschild, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Most of these are non-taxpayer sources. NASA was small as far as I know, I don't recall seeing them listed in any of the recent (much larger) rounds. Unless you count the Ontario provincial government paying their teachers including their pensions, and the thus-funded pension fund investing in SpaceX.

Cipater 5y ago

You mean $1.9 billion, right?

simonh 5y ago

That linked page says $5.9bn in external funding. That may not include initial seed capital, but I don't think that was as much as a billion.

SECProto 5y ago
Thank you for the correction. I read 5.9 in the article and somehow typo'd with 19 in my comment.