Jeff Bezos, the man who founded Blue Origin with the kind of pocket change most of us reserve for a nice dinner out, is reportedly doing something he hasn't done in the company's 24-year history: asking other people for money. According to the DealBook newsletter, Blue Origin is raising $10 billion in private capital, valuing the company at a cool $130 billion. Coatue Management is expected to lead with a $4 billion commitment, another $4 billion will come from large institutional investors, and Bezos himself will chip in an additional $2 billion - presumably found under the couch cushions.

Founded in 2000, Blue Origin has ambitions to become a global leader in spaceflight, developing super heavy lift rockets, lunar landers, and two megaconstellations. It wants to compete with SpaceX in launch, telecommunications, and space-based data centers. But unlike SpaceX, which started with a modest investment from Elon Musk and grew through contracts and private investment, Blue Origin has been almost entirely funded by Bezos's personal fortune - to the tune of several billion dollars a year.

In March, Ars predicted Bezos would eventually seek outside investors to keep up with SpaceX. The numbers are telling: SpaceX raised $85 billion in its IPO this year and is valued at approximately $2 trillion. Blue Origin's $10 billion raise looks like pocket change by comparison. The company also needs to offer competitive stock options to retain employees, which is hard to do when you're basically a sole proprietorship.

Blue Origin's fundraising plans hit a snag in late May when its flagship rocket, New Glenn, exploded in Florida and destroyed its only launch pad. Since then, Bezos and CEO Dave Limp have been scrambling to clean up and rebuild, with Bezos insisting the rocket will fly again before year's end - a timeline most industry observers consider optimistic, with 12 months being more realistic. The urgency is uncharacteristic for a company whose mascot is a turtle and whose motto is “step-by-step, ferociously.” But apparently, when you're trying to close financial deals, a giant explosion doesn't inspire investor confidence.

New Glenn is the backbone of Blue Origin's plans, from delivering cargo and humans to the lunar surface for NASA to providing competitive launch pricing against SpaceX. The company has also announced two megaconstellations: TeraWave Internet for enterprise customers in low- and medium-Earth orbit, and Project Sunrise, a constellation of up to 51,600 satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits. These projects will require tens to hundreds of billions of dollars - assuming they ever get off the ground.

Sources say Bezos, now 62, has grown tired of writing checks. In 2017, he hired Bob Smith to make Blue Origin self-sufficient on government and commercial contracts, but that effort largely failed, leading to Smith's departure in 2023. So now Bezos is turning to private capital, both to limit his own investments and to fund the growth needed to compete with SpaceX. Because nothing says “I believe in this company” like asking strangers to foot the bill.