Elon Musk's Space Baby Is Ignoring His Drama

Gizmodo

15 hours ago

It hasn't been a great summer for Elon Musk's empire. The billionaire has been making headlines not for rockets or robots, but for explosive political drama. After pouring nearly $290 million of his own money into the 2024 election cycle to help Donald Trump return to the White House, Musk has now formed his own 'America Party.' This unprecedented move has accelerated a public and bitter end to his one-time bromance with Trump.
The fracture deepened after Musk sharply criticized Trump's signature 'One Big Beautiful Bill' as a massive spending disaster and publicly accused the administration of a cover-up involving the Jeffrey Epstein files. Trump, for his part, hit back hard, famously calling Musk a 'train wreck' and threatening his companies with federal action, escalating what has become a high-stakes feud.
Tesla, the jewel of Musk's public holdings, has paid the price. The electric vehicle company has shed over $350 billion in market cap since the start of the year. X, formerly known as Twitter, hasn't fared much better: its AI chatbot Grok has been caught spewing antisemitic content, and CEO Linda Yaccarino just announced her resignation on July 9.
But while Musk's political stunts and tech misfires dominate headlines, SpaceX is quietly thriving.
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The rocket company is reportedly in talks to raise new funding that would lift its valuation to around $400 billion, according to Bloomberg. If the deal goes through, SpaceX would further cement its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
That's a long way from where it started.
Founded in 2002 by Musk with the goal of making humanity multi-planetary, SpaceX is now the undisputed leader in commercial spaceflight. It has launched hundreds of rockets, carried NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, and built the Starlink satellite internet service, which now boasts over 6 million users globally as of June 2025.
Its current CEO is still Elon Musk, but day-to-day operations are largely overseen by Gwynne Shotwell, the long-serving President and COO widely credited with keeping the company focused and functional amid Musk's distractions. Shotwell has been with SpaceX since 2002 and is widely credited with overseeing the company's operational successes, customer relations, and ensuring the execution of its ambitious development programs. This established management structure allows the company to maintain focus on its core mission, even as its founder navigates external controversies.
This latest fundraising effort isn't unusual. SpaceX typically holds two tender offers per year, allowing employees to sell shares while bringing in new capital. These discussions are still ongoing, and the final valuation could shift depending on market conditions.
In October 2021, SpaceX was valued at $100 billion. That number surged to $350 billion in December 2023. Now, just seven months later, the rocket company appears poised to jump again even as Musk's other ventures are weighed down by scandal.
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SpaceX declined to comment.
A $400 billion valuation despite the external 'Musk effect' demonstrates that investors view SpaceX as a fundamentally strong, independent entity with robust business fundamentals. They are betting on its technology, its contracts (including lucrative government deals with NASA and the Pentagon), and its long-term vision for space exploration and global internet connectivity, rather than being deterred by the controversies surrounding its founder.
The capital raised will fuel SpaceX's colossal projects, including the development of Starship, its next-generation fully reusable rocket system designed for missions to the Moon and Mars, and the continued expansion of the Starlink constellation. This funding is critical for achieving Musk's long-term vision of making humanity multiplanetary.