Alex Bruno
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will get a $50 million (AED184 million) investment from the International Holding Company (IHC) of Abu Dhabi and its subsidiary Alpha Dubai. IHC, which already has a share in SpaceX, will contribute $25 million, while Alpha Dhabi will invest $25 million for the first time in the California-based space business. Through a statement and regulatory filing, the corporations acknowledged the investments.
Advanced rockets and spacecraft are created, produced, and launched by SpaceX. It is actively developing new Starship prototypes, a new form of a reusable rocket. It is developing Starlink, a worldwide broadband internet satellite system with more than 12,000 satellites for global coverage, and currently has two operational spacecraft, the Dragon and Falcon 9. The aerospace business said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing in February of last year that it had successfully raised $850 million in equity capital, bringing its worth to around $74 billion.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, who are also pursuing space tourism, are in direct competition with SpaceX. Through the private equity firm Falcon CI IV, IHC initially purchased a share in SpaceX in 2020. In the Cayman Island-based fund that invested in SpaceX, the holding firm purchased a 94 percent interest.
IHC was founded in 1998 and now consists of over 30 companies in a variety of industries, including the capital, utilities, real estate, agricultural, healthcare, food and beverage, utilities, industries, IT and communications, and retail and leisure. The UAE announced earlier this month that it would preside over COPUOS, the Committee on The Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
With 100 members, COPOUS is one of the biggest UN bodies and has a significant impact on how space is explored and used for the sake of all mankind.
It was declared to be “a tremendous honor for the Emirates to accept the chair of COPUOS” at the time by Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency. The UN General Assembly established COPUOS in 1959 to oversee space exploration and utilization, and it was given responsibility for assessing global collaboration in such activities.
Source: ArabianBusiness
