Investing in Space: The market's taking off
It's a quieter affair in the space sector, where some big names — like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin — have so far steered clear of going public. There's still a sound swathe of listed heavy hitters that (also) dabble in space activities and are likely to draw the eye, from Boeing and Lockheed Martin to Virgin Galactic. Voyager Technologies only just entered the public arena last month, with shares soaring more than 80% in company's debut trading day after upsizing its initial public offering.
And then there's the other new kid set to enter the Nasdaq's block: rocket maker Firefly Aerospace's filed to list and thereafter trade under the "FLY" ticker symbol. It's yet to reveal the number of shares that'll be made available and their price range, but the firm's success in touching its Blue Ghost lunar lander down on the Moon earlier this year is likely to have earned it some attention.
The sector's startups kept drawing in funds over the April-June stretch, riding the high of "sustained interest" in defense opportunities and improved market sentiment after a fleeting pause in the U.S.' so-called reciprocal tariffs, according to a report from Seraphim Space covering industry activity in the second quarter. No big surprise on the security-linked gains: from intelligence gathering to imaging, communications and navigation, space is pretty integral to defense operations. It's only stepped further the limelight this year between the U.S.' plans for the Golden Dome missile-intercepting system, Europe's "ReArm" initiative and NATO allies' recent pledge to raise their defense contributions to 5% of their gross domestic product by 2035.
Altogether, investment in space startups rallied to $3.1 billion over the April-June stretch, marking the second largest quarter of investments in Seraphim Space's records and a boost from around $2.1 billion over the January-March period. Not unpredictably, U.S. firms absorbed the lion's share of the second-quarter space tech funding at $2.2 billion, or 70%. This means year-to-date investment in U.S. space businesses has already surpassed the total achieved in the whole of 2024 — impressively, despite federal contracts and NASA budget cuts and the volatility triggered by the recent U.S. administration's protectionist trade policies.
Just two non-U.S. deals ranked in the second-quarter's top 10 fundraisers — one by German launch services supplier Isar Aerospace in a $174 million Series C round, and another by Chinese positioning service provider Qianxun Spatial Intelligence, which clinched $137-million's worth of Series B funds. U.S. startup Impulse Space meanwhile scored the top deal of the second quarter in a $300-million Series C raise.
Overall, venture capital companies remained the most active space investors in recent months, contributing 77% of 2025 funding in the sector to date, compared with the 54% average of 2024, according to Space Capital's separate second-quarter Space IQ report. The company identified especially strong funding momentum for habitats — crewed space stations — as well as for on-orbit servicing and energy generation and storage.
Noting 18 acquisitions that took place in the second quarter, Space Capital flagged it expects more than 10 "high-value" deals to close in 2025, for a projected total of $35 billion.
And space businesses are also carrying out investment. The talk of the town is a Wall Street Journal report that signals SpaceX has agreed to invest a whopping $2 billion in xAI — the maker of controversial chatbox Grok, which is already believed to be powering the customer support features of SpaceX's satellite network Starlink. The space company's investment in xAI is part of a broader $10 billion debt and equity fundraising effort previously announced by Morgan Stanley, the WSJ said, citing sources. CNBC has reached out to xAI and SpaceX for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tesla $1 Trillion Autonomy Dream Thrills Analysts--But Margins Tell a Darker Story
July 25 - Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) grabbed headlines after its Q2 report unveiled slowing revenue and delivery trends, even as Elon Musk promised a more affordable EV model and deeper autonomy push. Wedbush's Dan Ives argues the next few quarters will make or break Tesla's autonomy ambitions. He expects ride?hailing services to cover half the U.S. population by year?end and full self?driving (FSD) for personal use in select cities. Wedbush keeps an Outperform rating and $500 price target, valuing autonomy at $1 trillion. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with WSO. Wells Fargo's Colin Langan stays cautious with an Underweight rating, flagging longer timelines for robotaxis and Optimus, plus added strain from tariffs and potential EV tax?credit cuts. Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas warns that slower volumes, vanishing incentives, and higher expenses could force consensus estimates lower, his FY25 EPS forecast falls 14%, FY26 down 7%. Matt Britzman of Hargreaves Lansdown observes that investors are supporting the development story behind Tesla even when core measures are weakening. Rising expenses, lower margins and cash flow concerns, he says, now are the base scenario, which allows the AI story to push stocks higher. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Chicago Tribune
16 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Wall Street hovers near records in premarket trading as attention turns to next week's busy schedule
Wall Street was on track to open with gains on Friday, adding to record highs ahead of next week's busy slate of earnings, job market reports, a Federal Reserve policy meeting and the tariff deadline. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both were up 0.1% before the bell. Nasdaq futures were flat. The S&P and Nasdaq both closed at record highs on Thursday and markets are currently on track to finish the week with gains for the fourth time in the past five weeks. Intel shares tumbled more than 7% overnight after the chipmaker announced plans to reduce its 'core' workforce by nearly one-quarter and cut other expenses in a bid to revive the fortunes of the struggling chipmaker. Intel, which helped launch Silicon Valley as the U.S. technology hub, has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices while demand for artificial intelligence chips soars. Deckers Brands was up more than 13% overnight after the shoe company easily beat Wall Street's sales and profit targets. Deckers said first-quarter sales rose 17% from the same quarter last year, to $965 million, on the strength of its Ugg and Hoka brands. Boston Beer Co., the maker of Samuel Adams beer and Truly hard seltzer, climbed 7.8% after its second-quarter profit came in well ahead of analysts' forecasts. Boston Beer saw its net income rise more than 15% over last year, boosting its earnings per share in the period to $5.45. Analysts were expecting profit of $3.86 per share. Stocks have broadly been rallying for weeks on hopes that President Donald Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will lower his stiff proposed tariffs, along with the risk that they could cause a recession and drive up inflation. The deadline for those negotiations comes next Friday, Aug. 1. Next week brings the peak of earnings season, with more than 100 companies in the benchmark S&P 500 reporting their latest results. The Fed, under pressure from President Trump to lower its benchmark borrowing rate, will announce its latest decision on interest rates Wednesday. Despite pressure coming from the White House, most analysts think the Fed will stand pat, leaving its benchmark rate alone for the fifth straight time. The economic data calendar is also full, with three separate reports on the labor market, including the always closely-watched monthly jobs report. Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany's DAX shed 0.8%, while Britain's FTSE 100 slid 0.4%. In Paris, the CAC 40 slipped 0.1%. In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% to 41,456.23 after two days of gains following President Donald Trump's announcement of a trade deal that would place a 15% tax on imports from Japan. That's lower than the 25% rate that Trump had earlier said would kick in on Aug. 1. Data released on Friday showed the inflation rate in Japan's capital Tokyo rose 2.9% year-on-year in July, down from 3.1% in June. Japanese government efforts to moderate inflation are working, though underlying Tokyo price pressures remain elevated, ING Economics said in a commentary. It expects the Bank of Japan to hold interest rates steady at its July 30-31 meeting, but said the central bank would likely raise its forecast for inflation. In Chinese markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.1% to 25,388.35 and the Shanghai Composite index slid 0.3% to 3,593.66. Next week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he will meet with Chinese officials in Stockholm, Sweden, to work toward a trade deal with Beijing ahead of an Aug. 12 deadline. Trump has said a China trip 'is not too distant' as trade tensions ease. 'One big question for markets is whether the tariff ceasefire is extended. We expect that an agreement will be attainable, but, in the interim, markets will watch closely to see if there are adjustments to current tariff rates in either direction,' ING Economics said. In South Korea, the Kospi picked up 0.2% to 3,196.05, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to 8,666.90. Taiwan's Taiex edged less than 0.1% lower, and in India, the Sensex fell 0.9%. On Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.1% to its all-time high set the day before, closing at 6,363.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 44,693.91, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% to a record 21,057.96. In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil added 27 cents to $66.30 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, also rose 27 cents to $68.63 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 147.65 Japanese yen from 147.00 yen. The euro fell to $1.1723 from $1.1750.
Business Wire
16 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Mitek to Report Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter Financial Results on Aug. 7, 2025
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Mitek Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MITK), a global leader in digital identity verification and fraud prevention, today announced that it will release its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30, 2025, after the U.S. market closes on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. Mitek will host a conference call and live webcast to discuss the results at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET). Mitek CEO Ed West and CFO Dave Lyle will lead the call, followed by a Q&A session. Conference Call and Webcast Details Event: Mitek Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter Financial Results Date: Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025 Time: 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET) Participants are encouraged to pre-register for the webcast by clicking here. Pre-registration is available before, during, and after the start time. Registered attendees will receive an online confirmation and a calendar invitation for the event. Those who are unable to pre-register can join the conference call/webcast by clicking the webcast link or using one of the dial-in numbers below: Webcast: Click here U.S. Toll-Free: +1 800 717 1738 International: +1 646 307 1865 Participants can use the guest dial-in numbers above to speak with an operator or click here for instant telephone access to the event 15 minutes prior to the event start time. Following the call, a dial-in replay will be available for one week. A webcast replay will remain accessible for one year at the link below or by using the dial-in numbers provided. Archived Webcast: U.S. Toll-Free Replay: +1 844 512 2921 International Replay: +1 412 317 6671 Replay Passcode: 1154629 The press release will be available on the Mitek investor relations website before the event begins. About Mitek Mitek Systems protects what's real across digital interactions in a world of evolving threats. Mitek helps businesses verify identities, prevent fraud before it happens, and deliver secure, seamless digital experiences in the face of rapidly advancing AI-generated threats. From account opening to authentication and deposit, Mitek's technology safeguards critical digital interactions. More than 7,000 organizations rely on Mitek to protect their most important customer connections and stay ahead of emerging risks. Learn more at [(MITK-F)] Follow Mitek on LinkedIn and YouTube, and read Mitek's latest blog posts here.
