New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday refuted reports that SpaceX is raising money worth $800 billion or NASA gives subsidies to his space company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX is kicking off a secondary share sale that would value the rocket maker at $800 billion, surpassing OpenAI to make it the most valuable US private company.

“There has been a lot of press claiming @SpaceX is raising money at $800B, which is not accurate. SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” said the billionaire in a series of X posts.

He further stated that valuation increments are a function of progress with Starship and Starlink and securing global direct-to-cell spectrum that greatly increases our addressable market.

“And one other thing that is arguably most significant by far,” he added.

Musk said while he has have great fondness for NASA, “they will constitute less than 5 per cent of our revenue next year”.

“Commercial Starlink is by far our largest contributor to revenue. Some people have claimed that SpaceX gets ‘subsidised’ by NASA. This is absolutely false,” said Musk.

“The SpaceX team won the NASA contracts because we offered the best product at the lowest price. BOTH best product AND lowest cost. With regard to astronaut transport, SpaceX is currently the only option that passes NASA safety standards,” he added.

SpaceX last week sent up 28 Starlink satellites to orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The reusable first stage returned 8.5 minutes after liftoff, demonstrating the booster’s reusability.

This was the 156th Falcon 9 mission of the year by ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌the company. There are now thousands of Starlink satellites in the constellation.

—IANS

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