{"id":19666,"date":"2015-01-19T21:32:05","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T13:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/report-google-in-talks-to-invest-in-spacex-boosting-seattle-based-satellite-initiative\/"},"modified":"2015-01-19T21:32:05","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T13:32:05","slug":"report-google-in-talks-to-invest-in-spacex-boosting-seattle-based-satellite-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/report-google-in-talks-to-invest-in-spacex-boosting-seattle-based-satellite-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Google in talks to invest in SpaceX, boosting Seattle-based satellite initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Google
Google CEO Larry Page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Google is close to making an investment in Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, with the intent of supporting the commercial space company\u2019s new Seattle-based satellite Internet initiative, according to a report by The Information this morning, citing people familiar with the talks.<\/p>\n

The deal, if it happens, would create a powerful alliance between two companies aiming to spread high-speed Internet around the world.<\/p>\n

Maybe it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise: Google CEO Larry Page has spoken highly of Musk in the past, telling Charlie Rose last year that he would rather leave his money to the SpaceX founder than to a non-profit philanthropy. Page cited Musk\u2019s goal of establishing a Martian colony to \u201cback up humanity\u201d \u2014 which is one long-term aim of the satellite Internet project.<\/p>\n

Up to this point, Google has been placing its bets on its Project Loon initiative \u2014 testing the idea of a \u201cnetwork of balloons traveling on the edge of space\u201d to connect people in rural and remote areas of the world.<\/p>\n

Musk announced SpaceX\u2019s satellite broadband initiative on Friday evening at a private event in Seattle, telling a crowd of 400 people that the company wants to revolutionize the satellite industry in the same way it has shaken up the commercial rocket business.<\/p>\n

\"Elon
SpaceX founder Elon Musk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ultimate goal, Musk says, is to use the technology and revenue from the satellite Internet initiative to fund the establishment of a city on Mars. But first the company will create a network of satellites in low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus is going to be on creating a global communication system,\u201d Musk said at the event. <\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThis is quite an ambitious effort. In the long term, it will be like rebuilding the Internet, in space. The goal will be to have a majority of long-distance Internet traffic go over this network, and about 10 percent of local consumer and business traffic. Still, 90 percent of people\u2019s local access will still come from fiber, but we\u2019ll do about 10 percent business and consumer direct, and more than half of the long-distance traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The satellite Internet operation will be based in the Seattle area. Permit filings found by GeekWire last week showed that the company has established its initial office in Redmond, down the road from Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Musk estimated that the satellite constellation, ultimately encompassing more than 4,000 satellites, will take $10 billion to $15 billion to create. But in the short run, he said, there are no plans for an IPO.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t take SpaceX public for quite a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve said is, when we\u2019re doing regular flights to Mars, that might be a good time to go public. But not before then, because the long-term goals of SpaceX are really long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

That helps to explain why SpaceX would be considering taking on additional private investment. In her report this morning, The Information\u2019s Jessica Lessin notes that SpaceX \u201chasn\u2019t raised a primary round of funding in several years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Existing investors in the company include Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Valor Equity Partners. The report says Google has agreed to value SpaceX at more than $10 billion, and the new funding round, including other outside investors, is \u201cvery large.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google CEO Larry Page Google is close to making an investment in Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, with the intent of supporting the commercial space company\u2019s new Seattle-based satellite Internet initiative, according to a report by The Information this morning, citing people familiar with the talks. The deal, if it happens, would create a powerful alliance between two companies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1045,3055,5650,5401,21,316],"class_list":["post-19666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-elon-musk","tag-google","tag-larry-page","tag-seattle","tag-space","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}