Space explorer Intuitive Machines (LUNR +7.21%) stock jumped 6.3% through 3:30 p.m. ET Monday after announcing that an "undisclosed customer" has hired it to build "a multi-satellite communications infrastructure" in space.
The total value of the contract: $600 million.
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Details, please
To put that in context, $600 million is about 20% more money than Intuitive Machines raked in from all its customers over the last 12 months -- and this is coming from a single customer. As Intuitive explains, it will be building a constellation of satellites for its customer based on its IM 1300TM satellite platform.
How many satellites, exactly, and at what value per satellite, wasn't revealed -- only that it will be "multiple." Neither did Intuitive say who will launch its satellites. (Intuitive Machines is a satellite stock, not a rocket stock -- and owns no rockets of its own). Neither did Intuitive give much detail on its customer, noting that its client list includes "commercial, civil, and national security" buyers.
Among these customers, the most important is NASA itself, which in 2024 hired Intuitive to build and operate a Near Space Network satellite system handling communications traffic between Earth and the moon. That contract dwarfs even this one, being valued at up to $4.8 billion over 10 years.
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What this means for Intuitive Machines stock
Still, $600 million is nothing to sneeze at. It's a significant sum for a company with as small a revenue stream (currently) as Intuitive has. What investors will want to keep an eye on in future quarters, as more details emerge, is how many years the $600 million project will span.
Only then will we be able to tell how much money Intuitive will make annually and better estimate what this will mean for Intuitive's profits.
