Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, is raising $10 billion in its first funding round from outside investors.
The deal values the business at $130 billion and marks a turning point after 25 years of financing almost entirely by its billionaire owner.
Bezos, who built his fortune through Amazon, is contributing $2 billion to the round himself.
A further $4 billion is expected to come from CO2, according to people familiar with the fundraising.
The company was established almost 26 years ago to develop reusable rockets, a technology it demonstrated before rival SpaceX.
Despite that early lead, Blue Origin has lagged behind Elon Musk's firm in turning its engineering into a business with steady revenue and profit.
The fundraising is designed to close that gap and put the company on a more sustainable commercial footing.
Investor appetite has been sharpened by the recent stock market flotation of SpaceX, which has drawn fresh attention to the sector.
The $10 billion sum dwarfs anything the company has previously raised and reflects the scale of capital now flowing into private space ventures.
Blue Origin's business lines are not fully disclosed, leaving investors to weigh its ambitions against a thin public record of earnings.
Blue Origin holds contracts with NASA to deliver astronauts and lunar rovers to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis programme.
It has also struck deals with telecoms operators to launch satellites, though one recent deployment suffered a mishap.
The company is pushing into new areas, including a plan for data centres in orbit through a business it calls Terra Wave.
Orbital data centres would place computing power in space, though the commercial details of the venture remain sparse.
A satellite internet service and space-based computing could each provide additional sources of income if they reach the market.
The move mirrors a wider shift in the industry, where private rocket firms are racing to secure long-term government and commercial contracts.
Bezos funded the venture quietly for a quarter of a century, an approach that allowed slow development but left it without external discipline.
Bringing in outside shareholders introduces new pressure to deliver returns and hit operational milestones.
The company must now show it can launch reliably and at scale, having trailed SpaceX on cadence for years.
Its NASA lunar work forms part of America's effort to return astronauts to the Moon.
Success there could anchor Blue Origin's reputation and open the door to further government business.
Executives are said to be considering a public listing within the next couple of years.
Any flotation would still leave Blue Origin well behind SpaceX, which retains a commanding lead in operational revenue and contracts.
For now, the priority is converting decades of research into a company that can stand on its own finances.
