As one of the major contenders in the emerging commercial spaceflight market, Blue Origin has attracted a great deal of attention from investors. The company’s high-profile flights have put it in the spotlight over the last year.
What Is Blue Origin? Blue Origin has been in existence and slowly building its space vehicle technology since 2000. It is a for-profit aerospace engineering and space exploration company founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The company is currently engaged in developing a variety of orbital and suborbital space flight vehicles. Its first manned flight occurred in July of 2021.
Who Owns Blue Origin?
Blue Origin is a private company that is primarily owned by its founder, Jeff Bezos.
The former Amazon CEO started the company in 2000 to explore next-generation spaceflight technologies.
When Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon, he listed a tighter focus on Blue Origin among his future plans.
How Is Blue Origin Funded?
The main funding source for Blue Origin appears to be Bezos himself. The tech entrepreneur is known to have put at least $5.5 billion of his own money into the company.
The company also has received substantial amounts of money for work contracted by NASA, though claims that Blue Origin’s private flights were funded by the US government agency have been thoroughly debunked.
Beyond that, though, information about other investors in the company is quite scarce due to a lack of public filings.
Is Blue Origin Publicly Traded?
Blue Origin is privately held. The company has not publicly discussed any plans for a future IPO. Bezos appears to prefer the private structure of the company for the time being and has released very little financial information to the public.
That doesn’t mean, however, that an IPO is impossible. Despite Jeff Bezos’ enormous fortune, the company will likely need outside funding sources to expand its spaceflight offerings commercially.
Source: Pixabay
What Is the Stock Name for Blue Origin?
Until Blue Origin files for an IPO, it’s impossible to tell what name the stock would formally take. The company has, however, operated under the same name since Bezos founded it in 2000. With nothing else to go on, it’s reasonably safe to assume that a public version of the company would retain the Blue Origin name.
Can I Invest in Blue Origin?
As of now, there is no way for retail investors to put money into Blue Origin. Until the company conducts an IPO, Blue Origin will remain strictly private.
Given Jeff Bezos’ preference for funding the company with his own money, it could be some time before Blue Origin shares are available for public purchase.
How Can I Buy Blue Origin Pre-IPO?
In the event of a future IPO, you should be able to place an order for shares that will be delivered as soon as they are released publicly. To do this, you will need to meet your brokerage’s IPO purchase requirements. Different brokers have different requirements for investing in IPOs, but most are based on the total value of your portfolio.
Once your broker has authorized you to buy IPO shares, you can put in an order for the number of shares you wish to purchase. Be aware that you may have to settle for fewer shares if your broker won’t be able to fulfill your full order.
Before the IPO, you’ll be informed of the number of shares you can purchase and be given an opportunity to formally commit to purchasing them. The shares are then delivered on the day of the initial public offering.
Keep in mind, though, that this process can only start once a company has formally filed for its IPO. At the moment, there’s no way to begin pre-ordering shares of Blue Origin.
What Is Blue Origin’s Ticker Symbol?
Blue Origin does not have a ticker symbol. In the event of an IPO, the company will receive one on its chosen stock exchange.
One thing is certain. The Blue Origin ticker symbol will not be BLUE, as that symbol has already been taken by a company called bluebird bio.
Which Is Better: SpaceX or Blue Origin?
Blue Origin’s main competitor is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which similarly hasn’t gone public yet. In the event that one or both of these companies list shares publicly in the coming years, though, investors may have to decide which one is the better long-term bet.
The two companies operate on significantly different philosophies. Blue Origin has focused on a slow and steady approach to building mostly suborbital vehicles geared toward space tourism. SpaceX, by contrast, has pushed aggressively to build orbital vehicles that can deliver substantial payloads to space.
Blue Origin is still mostly funded by Bezos, while SpaceX has been able to win several high-paying government contracts.
Assuming both companies pursued IPOs around the same time, it’s fairly clear that SpaceX would be the early leader. The company’s technology has made it a dominant force in spaceflight and secured it a healthy slate of government contracts. In 2021, Blue Origin lost a critical contract for the upcoming Artemis program to SpaceX, ultimately ending in an unsuccessful legal challenge.
SpaceX also stands to benefit from a renewed push for manned missions to space. Both the Moon and Mars are targets for future human exploration. SpaceX already has a long-term goal of manned Martian flights, meaning that its technology will likely be critical to future missions to Mars.
Blue Origin, by contrast, has focused much more tightly on the commercial space tourism market. According to a 2018 report, the company eventually plans to offer tickets priced between $200,000 and $300,000 apiece. While substantial ticket sales at these prices could generate decent revenue, the market for them would be quite narrow. Given the expense involved in spaceflight, Blue Origin could have a long road to profitability.
Overall, SpaceX seems to be the better option as a stock. While Blue Origin certainly has potential, SpaceX appears to have the lead in terms of both technology and revenue at the moment. A firm relationship with government agencies and a dominant hold on orbital rocket technology both favor SpaceX.
With that said, Blue Origin could still catch up to SpaceX. The company has developed impressive technology of its own and could begin to compete for government contracts more aggressively. Space tourism also has substantial potential, even if it could take a while for Blue Origin to turn a profit from it.
SpaceX could also suffer from overvaluation if and when it goes public. Projects associated with Elon Musk have historically commanded high stock prices. If overly bullish investors drive the price of SpaceX shares too high, Blue Origin could present a more reasonably priced alternative in the commercial space industry.
Is Blue Origin Publicly Traded: The Bottom Line
As of now, Blue Origin is not publicly traded and does not seem to be particularly close to pursuing an IPO.
Jeff Bezos has thus far kept Blue Origin strictly private and funded it largely with his own money. Although it may opt to go public at some point in the future, it appears that investors shouldn’t plan on ordering Blue Origin shares anytime soon.
#1 Stock For The Next 7 Days
When Financhill publishes its #1 stock, listen up. After all, the #1 stock is the cream of the crop, even when markets crash.
Financhill just revealed its top stock for investors right now... so there's no better time to claim your slice of the pie.
See The #1 Stock Now >>The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.