Google, Fidelity invest $1 bn in Tesla founder's SpaceX

Google along with Fidelity Investments  have invested $1 billion in Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the private rocketry company founded by Tesla Motors' Elon Musk, The New York Times reported yesterday.

The move could help Google achieve its aim of bringing satellite internet to remote corners of the world even as SpaceX attracted more money for founder Elon Musk to pursue his dreams of going to Mars.

Additionally, Google might be seeking to use satellites to provide internet to remote corners of the world. Last year it bought Skybox Imaging, a maker of small, high-resolution imaging satellites, for about $500 million.

Google already offers satellite imagery in its Google Earth, but has to buy this from multiple sources often receiving, what company executives said,  uneven image quality.

Google might also be interested in developing satellites with other kinds of sensors, like infrared detectors that showed the health of crops, or lasers that could pierce forest canopies to show underlying terrain.

Google co founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are keenly interested in space exploration and at one time the company offered employees lectures on building so-called space elevators that could theoretically launch objects off earth more cheaply than rockets could.

More practically, the company had been trying  to transform the internet connectivity business with high-altitude balloons that people could use to get online from remote locations. The same transmission technology could conceivably be used in satellites as well.

Google faces competition in this from Facebook, which is pursuing advanced means of connectivity. Facebook last year acquired a drone company whose products are potentially capable of carrying internet devices.

Meanwhile, San Jose Mercury News reported that in a move that would give Elon Musk's SpaceX a $10-billion valuation, Google and Fidelity would invest $1 billion in the Tesla founder's space technology company.

With the investment the two companies had between them 10 per cent of Space Exploration Technologies, SpaceX. According to Google, its share was 7.5 per cent.

The announcement came in a short statement posted on the SpaceX website yesterday.

"This funding will be used to support continued innovation in the areas of space transport, reusability and satellite manufacturing," the statement said.

In its own statement which Google released yesterday, search company said,

"Space-based applications, like imaging satellites, can help people more easily access important information, so we're excited to support SpaceX's growth as it develops new launch technologies.''

Google's vice president of corporate development, Don Harrison, would have a seat on SpaceX's board.