Elon Musk’s SpaceX Gets Fresh Funds from Italian Bank

SpaceX's latest investor appears to be Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo.

On Friday, the bank issued a statement explaining the move, saying that space flight "can play a crucial role in driving the development and growth of the world's economies and SpaceX has shown a cutting-edge vision for the future in this field."

The bank cited SpaceX's long list of achievements, including being the only private company to return a spacecraft from low Earth orbit, the first of its kind to shuttle cargo from Earth to the International Space Station and developing the Falcon 9, the only orbital class reusable rocket in use. 

SpaceX is a private company with an estimated valuation of $150 billion. The exact terms of the investment were not made public. 

SpaceX has a significant technological lead over its competitors in the commercial space industry, but the Elon Musk-owned company has hit headlines for other, less illustrious reasons recently.

Musk is fixated on Starship, a powerful rocket he hopes to use to send humans to Mars and establish a city, which blew up during a test in April and prompted an investigation by the Federal Aviation Authority and other government watchdogs.

Meanwhile, its satellite internet division, Starlink, has become a geopolitical thorn in the side of the U.S. as it seeks to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

The company is also facing multiple lawsuits, including one filed by the Department of Justice and another filed on Thursday that alleges the company pays female and minority employees less than white male counterparts.