{"id":589,"date":"2026-06-03T05:16:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=589"},"modified":"2026-06-03T05:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:16:53","slug":"mark-cuban-put-500k-into-a-strangers-rocket-company-over-email-its-now-a-spacex-competitor-worth-4-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=589","title":{"rendered":"Mark Cuban put $500K into a stranger\u2019s rocket company over email. It\u2019s now a SpaceX competitor worth $4 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He once bought a $25 million Dallas mansion sight unseen, calling it his one \u201cwhy the f\u2013k not purchase.\u201d But one of his most lucrative gambles started even more casually: with a cold email from a stranger he says he\u2019s still never met.<\/p>\n

Read more Mounting evidence suggests remote work is behind the Gen Z hiring nightmare. Even the New York Fed thinks so<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking in a September 2024 interview with podcaster and comedian Theo Von, Cuban recounted how a young entrepreneur named Tim Ellis\u2014who was also an ex-intern at Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos\u2019 space company) \u2014 and his friends emailed him from Dallas, saying they wanted to start a space company. Cuban admitted he had no relevant expertise, but wanted to give them a shot anyway.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t know shit about space, but I\u2019ll get you started and see what happens,\u201d Cuban recalled telling them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That company was Relativity Space. Cuban said the entire relationship played out over email, and he\u2019s still never met Ellis in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all email, never met him,\u201d he said, but still gave them $500,000 to start. \u201cNow I\u2019ve invested a few million, [and now] they\u2019re worth $4 billion,\u201d Cuban said.<\/p>\n

At Blue Origin, Ellis started the metal 3D-printing division before founding Relativity, he told TechCrunch\u2014so Cuban was quick to credit the founders for the success of the business rather than himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not like I helped them get there,\u201d Cuban said. \u201cThese guys were just insanely smart and good. I got lucky \u2026 I just got him started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relativity\u2019s pitch is manufacturing disruption: The company 3D-prints the majority of its rockets, aiming to slash parts counts and production time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the end, they\u2019re getting better performance and lower costs, which means we can potentially fly our payloads and astronauts safely and at a reduced cost on some of their missions,\u201d Paul Gradl, principal engineer of component development at Marshall, told NASA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Relativity is developing Terran R, a medium-to-heavy-lift, fully reusable two-stage rocket designed to compete with SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9, with a first launch targeted for late 2026.<\/p>\n

Read more Microsoft seeks to be AI\u2019s center of gravity again. CEO Satya Nadella is in San Francisco to make the case<\/a><\/p>\n

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The company has changed considerably since Cuban\u2019s early bet. After cash-flow challenges in late 2024, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt took over as CEO in March 2025, making a significant personal investment and taking a controlling interest; Ellis remains on the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Relativity is now valued at roughly $4 billion and has amassed more than $2.9 billion in orders with customers including NASA, the U.S. Space Force, SES, Intelsat, and OneWeb, according to TSG Invest. Executives have framed this demand as customers \u201cvoting with their checkbooks\u201d for an alternative to Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n

Relativity\u2019s backlog \u201cshows how desperate the market is for another cost-effective launch services provider\u201d given the dominant position of SpaceX, said Josh Brost, chief revenue officer of Relativity, according to SpaceNews.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cComing for you, Elon,\u201d Cuban said.<\/p>\n

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SpaceX, meanwhile, is in the middle of the most anticipated market debut in years. The company filed to go public and is expected to list on the Nasdaq around mid-June 2026, in what could be the largest IPO of all time. SpaceX is reportedly targeting a valuation of more than $2 trillion.<\/p>\n

The Relativity is a solid example of how Cuban often operates. After all, he bought his Dallas mansion without ever setting foot inside, telling GQ<\/em> he\u2019d seen only photos before committing. His instincts aren\u2019t so much recklessness as a willingness to act on conviction and let smart people and favorable terms do the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done a bunch of deals from people just cold emailing me,\u201d Cuban said in the interview with Von.<\/p>\n

Cuban, who is worth an estimated $10.3 billion, made his fortune by selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999 and later turned a $285 million Dallas Mavericks purchase into a multibillion-dollar return, retaining a minority stake after the sale. These days, his most visible venture is Cost Plus Drugs, the generic-pharmacy company he co-founded in 2022 to undercut traditional drug prices.<\/p>\n

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His takeaway from the Relativity deal was simple: \u201cSometimes just making yourself available opens a lot of doors. And it\u2019s helped me a ton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Should you treat AI agents as colleagues? Fortune 500 executives can\u2019t settle the debate<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The billionaire entrepreneur has a pattern of investing in things and people he hasn\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mark-cuban"],"yoast_head":"\nMark Cuban put $500K into a stranger\u2019s rocket company over email. 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