How Rocket Lab’s Founder Became The World’s Newest Space Billionaire

Forbes

The New Zealand native has turned his scrappy rocket company into a small but determined competitor of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Investors have driven the stock up by more than 300% over the last year.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2024/11/15/rocket-labs-founder-peter-beck-just-became-the-worlds-newest-space-billionaire/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Rocket Lab's founder Peter Beck just became the world's newest space

00:07billionaire.

00:09Shares of Long Beach, California-based Rocket Lab USA closed at an all-time high last Friday,

00:15boosting the fortune of the firm's New Zealand-born founder and CEO, Peter Beck, to an estimated

00:21$1 billion for the first time, according to Forbes estimates.

00:26The company, which develops and launches rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft for government

00:31and commercial customers, has seen its stock soar by more than 300% over the last year.

00:38Beck's 10% stake is now worth nearly $970 million, plus he is estimated to have nearly

00:44$65 million from selling shares of the company over the years.

00:49Rocket Lab's stock jumped by nearly 30% November 13th alone, after the company made three big

00:55announcements.

00:56First, a record revenue forecast of $125 to $135 million for the fourth quarter of 2024.

01:04Second, a multi-launch agreement with a commercial satellite constellation operator for a larger,

01:10more fully reusable launch vehicle called Neutron that Rocket Lab has been developing

01:15since 2021.

01:17And third, a proposal with NASA to retrieve samples from Mars and return them to Earth.

01:24Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Shepard notes that Rocket Lab is already the third

01:29most frequent orbital launcher globally behind SpaceX and the Chinese government.

01:34He says, quote,

01:35There's excitement because the Neutron, which is a significantly bigger rocket than

01:39Rocket Lab's existing electron launch vehicle, will compete to a degree with SpaceX's rockets

01:45and dramatically improve the economics of the company.

01:48Rocket Lab is the only one of those that can be invested in through the public markets,

01:53which is a big reason, in our view, that the stock has continued to run up.

01:58A self-taught aerospace engineer, Beck, who is 47 years old, skipped college and went

02:04to work in 1993 as an apprentice in New Zealand at appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel,

02:10where he rose through roles in precision engineering, production machinery design, and product design

02:16and analysis over the course of a decade, while building rockets in his spare time.

02:21In 2003, Beck moved to a New Zealand government research institute, where he led engineering

02:26programs focused on optimizing technologies like wind turbines and superconductors, before

02:32leaving to launch Rocket Lab in 2006.

02:36Rocket Lab made history three years later, when its Atea-1 became the first commercially

02:40developed rocket to reach space from the Southern Hemisphere, after launching off the coast

02:45of New Zealand in 2009.

02:48The company moved its headquarters to the US in 2013, and began development of its Electron

02:53launch vehicle a year later.

02:55Since its maiden voyage in 2017 through September of this year, the Electron has propelled an

03:00industry-leading 197 small spacecraft into orbit as part of 49 successful missions.

03:09Rocket Lab went public at the height of the SPAC boom in August 2021, when it merged with

03:13a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that valued the company at $4.1 billion,

03:19up nearly 200% from the $1.4 billion valuation that Rocket Lab received in its last private

03:25funding round in 2018.

03:28Other than Beck, the 2021 transaction's biggest winners were venture capital firms

03:33Cosla Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, and Australia's Sovereign Wealth Fund, which

03:38had collectively acquired a nearly 50% stake in Rocket Lab over the course of five funding

03:44rounds dating back to 2013.

03:48For full coverage, check out Matt Durow's piece on Forbes.com.

03:54This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

03:56Thanks for tuning in.

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