Here's Why Musk's SpaceX Has Grown Bigger, Faster And Cheaper Than Bezos' Blue Origin

Forbes

While Jeff Bezos has spent $14 billion to achieve his first space launch, his billionaire rival has built a thriving business, mostly with other people’s money.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2025/01/18/musk-spacex-bezos-blue-origin/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, why Musk's SpaceX has grown bigger, faster, and cheaper than Bezos'

00:07blue origin.

00:10When Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday,

00:15the super billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were among the select crowd of dignitaries

00:20watching from prime seats, just feet away from each other, in the Capitol Rotunda.

00:26But when it comes to their space rivalry, Bezos' Blue Origin isn't even in the same

00:30room as Musk's SpaceX.

00:33Blue Origin launched its first rocket into space last Thursday, 25 years after Bezos

00:38founded the company with a fortune he made from his e-commerce giant Amazon.

00:43SpaceX, which Musk started two years later, only took six years to reach space.

00:49Last year it successfully launched 133 rockets, accounting for over 85% of the payload mass

00:55put into orbit worldwide through the third quarter.

00:59It's the result of sharply contrasting approaches based partly on how they finance their companies.

01:04Bezos, who funded Blue Origin solely out of his fortune until recently, took a deliberate

01:10pace in developing his rocket technology.

01:13Musk, with a more limited bankroll to start that made failure an ever-present danger,

01:19adopted more of a classic Silicon Valley, quote,

01:22fail-fast-and-learn approach.

01:25Chad Anderson, managing partner of the investment firm Space Capital, estimates that Bezos has

01:30sunk $14.6 billion into Blue Origin.

01:35Musk reportedly put $100 million into SpaceX to develop its first rocket, the Falcon 1,

01:41using the proceeds from the $307 million sale of Zip2, the first company he co-founded,

01:47and the $1.5 billion sale of his second company, PayPal.

01:52But Musk also got a powerful boost from Pentagon launch contracts and NASA.

01:57The latter, in 2006, gave the company $278 million to develop a more powerful rocket,

02:03the Falcon 9, that has become the company's workhorse.

02:08Then in 2008, NASA gave SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to haul cargo to the International

02:14Space Station as part of a push to foster private space companies on the bet they could

02:19provide services at a lower cost.

02:22Blue Origin has won substantial NASA contracts, too, but only in the last few years.

02:28The credibility of big government contracts helped attract private customers and outside

02:33investors.

02:34All told, SpaceX has raised at least $9.5 billion.

02:39That's left Musk with only a 42% stake, but with investors bidding SpaceX's value up

02:44to an eye-popping $350 billion as of the latest private share sale in December, his

02:51shares are worth $147 billion.

02:54His overall net worth as of last week, $434 billion by Forbes' estimation, making him

03:00the world's richest person.

03:02Bezos ranks second with $239 billion.

03:07Musk and Bezos were motivated by the same goal, to enable humanity to move into the

03:11stars by lowering the cost of reaching space with reusable rockets.

03:16But where SpaceX is famously fast-paced, Blue Origin has taken a more methodical approach

03:22to developing its technology, epitomized by its motto, Gratitim Ferociter, Latin for Step

03:29by Step Ferociously.

03:32While SpaceX ramped up its tempo, going from 18 Falcon 9 launches in 2017 to 60 in 2022,

03:40Blue Origin's competing New Glenn rocket, which was initially planned to fly in 2020,

03:45remained mired in delays.

03:48In 2021, Blue Origin pulled off its first crewed suborbital flight on its New Shepard

03:53rocket, launching a service to take tourists to the edge of space.

03:57However, SpaceX had already done it one better the year before, carrying NASA astronauts

04:03well beyond to the International Space Station.

04:06Bezos can at least boast he's topped Musk in one way.

04:10He was on the first New Shepard flight, while Musk has yet to fly on one of his rockets.

04:16The space industry is eager for Blue Origin to succeed and provide an alternative to the

04:20near-monopoly that SpaceX has seized on launching cargo into space.

04:25New Glenn has roughly double the carrying capacity of Falcon 9, and Blue Origin is selling

04:30launches at a significantly lower price per satellite, a former employee told Forbes.

04:36At $110 million versus $70 million for Falcon 9.

04:42For full coverage, check out Jeremy Bogaski's piece on Forbes.com.

04:48This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:50Thanks for tuning in.

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