Elon Musk's SpaceX set to raise $500 million in funding, says report

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX Corp is set to raise $500 million at a $30.5 billion valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the fundraising plan.

The company is raising the capital from existing shareholders and new investor Baillie Gifford & Co, who is also the third-largest shareholder in Musk-led electric carmaker Tesla Inc .

The company plans to invest the fund in the company's satellite internet service, Starlink, WSJ said.
 

The proposed services - essentially a constellation of satellites that will bring high-speed Internet to rural and suburban locations globally - are key to generating the cash that SpaceX needs to fund Musk's real dream of developing a new rocket capable of flying customers to the moon and eventually trying to colonize Mars.

SpaceX declined to comment.

SpaceX investors are paying $186 per share for new stock in the latest funding round, WSJ reported, adding that it is up about 10 percent from the $169-per-share paid during an April fundraising.
 

In April, Reuters reported that SpaceX was raising $507 million in a new round of funding, valuing the company at around $26 billion.

The Hawthorne, California-based company has outlined plans for a trip to Mars in 2022, to be followed by a manned mission to the red planet by 2024.

Separately, SpaceX's launch of a much-delayed navigation satellite for the U.S. military was halted on Tuesday, postponing for at least a day the space transportation company's first designated national security mission for the United States.