Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic ‘should’ have ‘sufficient funds’ without his investment

Billionaire Richard Branson said his space travel company Virgin Galactic “should” have
“sufficient funds” without his investment Saturday.

“We don’t have the deepest pockets after Covid, and Virgin Galactic has got $1bn, or nearly. It should, I believe, have sufficient funds to do its job on its own,” Branson told the Financial Times.

Branson has made a decision to not add more money to the Virgin Galactic business, according to FT. His announcement comes only a little over two years after he went to outer space in a rocket ship developed by Virgin Galactic. 

“I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth,” Branson said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at the time. “To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do[.]” 

Despite his decision to not invest in Virgin Galactic further, the billionaire said he was “still loving” his space travel project, according to FT. Branson also said Virgin Galactic had “really proved itself and its technology.”

Branson may be turning his head towards an older form of transportation, however. He said Virgin Group, the multinational conglomerate he owns, might return to involvement in rail services in the U.K., according to FT. 

“I would not be surprised if one day Virgin is not back in trains,” Branson said, according to FT.