That’s it. Richard Branson has officially turned off the money spigot for Virgin Galactic. So what does that mean for the struggling space company?

In a surprising interview with the Financial Times, Richard Branson revealed that he will no longer invest money into the space tourism company Virgin Galactic that he founded in 2004.

So what effect do you think this had on Virgin Galactic’s stock? If you guessed it dropped like a lead weight you’d be right, with the stock sinking 15 percent.

What changed? Well, Virgin’s balance sheet is what’s changed. They don’t have “the deepest pockets” anymore according to Sir Richard Branson. He also mentioned that Virgin Galactic should have “sufficient funds to do its job on its own.” The company has reported that they have all of the funding they need in place through 2026. 

According to Virgin Galactic’s CEO Michael Colglazier he said “With our third quarter cash and marketable securities position of approximately $1.1 billion, we forecast having sufficient capital to bring our first two Delta ships into service and achieve positive cash flow in 2026.” Is that enough funding for them to reach profitability? I’m guessing that answer is a “Hell no!”, and they’ll need to do a new funding round in 2025, but what do I know? I’m just a content creator.

Richard Branson said he still has mad love for the space project (my words, not his, but minus well be), but he’s just done forking over cash.

Virgin Galactic has completed 6 spaceflights in the last 6 months, not a bad track record. Then came November and they announced they were suspending all flight operations for the next 18 months to save money for the development of their new and larger Delta class spaceship. 

And did this news come with any layoffs you might be asking? Well of course it did. Virgin Galactic is laying off about 18 percent of its workforce to save money. The company is hoping and wishing upon a prayer that the successful completion of their Delta spaceship will result in “positive cash flow.” based on their simple math that a bigger spaceship will mean more room for the cattle, I mean paying passengers.

Richard Branson Is Cutting Off Virgin Galactic