Banking & Finance Saudi and UAE investors plan to invest in Elon Musk’s SpaceX By Reuters March 23, 2023 Reuters/Callaghan O'Hare The latest funding round for SpaceX is expected to value the rocket maker at about $140 billion A unit of Saudi Arabia’s investment fund and an Abu Dhabi-based company are planning to invest in a multi-billion dollar funding round for Elon Musk-led SpaceX. The funding round is expected to value the rocket maker at about $140 billion, a US-based tech industry-focused business publication reported. SpaceX raised $2 billion in 2022 and $2.6 billion in 2020, according to venture capital firm Space Capital. The company and Morgan Stanley’s representatives have told investors that Saudi Arabia’s Water and Electricity Holding Company, part of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, and UAE’s Alpha Dhabi are part of the funding round, according to the report. SpaceX, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Alpha Dhabi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. In January Musk told jurors that he was certain he had financial support from Saudi investors in 2018 to take his electric car maker Tesla Inc private and could even have used his stake in SpaceX to fund a buyout. “With SpaceX stock alone, I felt funding was secured” for the buyout, he told a jury. Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches rockets and is also aiming to set up a base on planet Mars.
