Intuitive Machines lands $175M investment through stock sale
Intuitive Machines (LUNR) said this week that it has secured a $175 million strategic equity investment led by global institutional investors, which was funded through the issuance and sale of the company's Class A common stock.
The company said that it will use the investment on revenue expansion and to invest in technologies to advance communications and data processing networks. This technology will include extending flight-proven satellite platforms into growth markets.
Its stock dropped nearly 16% on Wednesday because of the share sale, which is expected to close on Friday.
Intuitive Machines sees the investment as a way to "enhance its ability to win and execute higher margin, recurring revenue programs," including President Trump's Golden Dome initiatives, Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, and "the evolving space-based orbital data center market."
The company noted that the new strategic investment follows the closing of its $800-million acquisition of Lanteris Space Systems in January, which the company paid for through a combination of cash and common stock.
With its new cash flow, Intuitive Machines will make investments in Lanteris platforms, with a focus on its 1300 series geostationary communications satellites, which the company sees as a way to grow market share in Geostationary Orbit (GEO). It will also look to expand its capabilities around the Moon and Mars, and also support emerging high-power on-orbit data processing and edge computing.
“We are building a scalable infrastructure platform from low-Earth orbit to the Moon and into deep space,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said in a statement. “With this investment, we can accelerate the integration of the combined company’s collective capabilities to deliver next-generation data, communications, and space-based infrastructure services."
LUNR shares surged more than 11% on Thursday.
Lanteris is a spacecraft manufacturer that works with national security, civil and commercial customers. The acquisition allowed Intuitive Machines to add "flight-proven manufacturing at scale" to its business, according to Altemus.
"Together, these strengths transform Intuitive Machines into a multi-domain, end-to-end solutions provider that can build spacecraft, connect resilient communications and navigation networks, and operate systems across LEO, MEO, GEO and cislunar space," he said.
B. Riley analyst Mike Crawford reiterated his Buy rating on Thursday for LUNR, while maintaining a $25 price target, viewing the capital raise as "strategic and growth-enabling despite near-term share pressure."
"We see this opportunistic raise, which we believe came about via reverse inquiry to the company from a syndicate of investors, as enabling LUNR to move faster in deploying its Near Space Network Services (NSNS) constellation, unlocking additional task orders under this multi-billion-dollar NASA program sooner," Crawford said.
He added that "we continue to love this Lanteris buy, a veritable bargain given its characterized 'double-digit' EBITDA margins."
Meanwhile, Intuitive Machines is also in the running for NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) program, competing against Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has said that NASA’s decision was expected to be submitted by the end of February, which means an announcement could come as early as this week.