Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company (IHC) and its subsidiary Alpha Dhabi is investing $50 million (AED184 million) in Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
IHC, which already has stake in SpaceX, will invest $25 million, while Alpha Dhabi will make its first investment in the California-based space company of $25 million. The companies confirmed the investments via a statement and regulatory filing.
SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. It is currently building new prototypes of its Starship, a next-generation re-usable rocket.
It has two active spacecrafts – Dragon and Falcon 9 – and is building out Starlink, a global broadband internet satellite constellation which will have more than 12,000 satellites for world coverage.
In February last year, the aerospace company said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had completed an equity funding round of $850m, increasing its valuation to roughly $74 billion.
SpaceX is going head-to-head with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, which are both venturing into space tourism.
IHC first acquired a stake in SpaceX in 2020 through private equity fund Falcon CI IV. The holding company bought a 94 percent stake in the Cayman Island-based fund, which has invested in SpaceX.
Founded in 1998, IHC comprises more than 30 entities across a growing number of sectors, including real estate, agriculture, healthcare, food and beverage, utilities, industries, IT and communications, retail and leisure, and capital.
Earlier this month, the UAE revealed that it will chair the Committee on The Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, known as “COPUOS”.
COPOUS is one of the largest UN committees with 100 member states, and plays a major role in governing the exploration and use of space for the benefit of all humanity.
At the tine, Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology and Chairwomen of the UAE Space Agency, called it “a great honour for the Emirates to take the chair of COPUOS”.
COPUOS was created by the UN General Assembly in 1959 to govern the exploration and use of space, and was tasked with reviewing international cooperation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space.
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