He said the company needed to be “ready for external funding” and he was confident in strong interest from outside investors.
Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, is the company’s sole shareholder and its primary source of financial backing. He has largely used the sale of Amazon stock—he owns nearly 9 percent of the group, according to proxy filings—to fund the rocket maker.
Blue Origin is spending heavily as it scales operations including building an 800,000 sq ft manufacturing facility and a second launch pad in Florida. It is also investing in the testing and development of its reusable rocket booster and orbital upper stage.
The company is expected to spend roughly $4.8 billion this year, according to analysts at Capstone, a Washington-based consulting firm. It estimates the group has spent nearly $28 billion since its inception.
Josh Parker, an analyst at Capstone, said Blue Origin had faced significant cost increases in recent years as it developed New Glenn in a “brutal inflationary environment.” He said competition for talent with SpaceX had also forced up salaries.
Limp, a former Amazon executive who took charge of Blue Origin in late 2023, told employees that he did not expect Bezos would ever sell the business. He did not rule out a potential IPO in the future, the people added.
Blue Origin’s CEO in April said the group was planning between eight and 12 launches in total this year with New Glenn. A target of 14 launches had earlier been shared with employees internally.
He said the group had a longer-term goal of hitting 100 launches a year, with a significant portion of these expected to help build out its TeraWave satellite communications network for business customers.
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