section_path: Internal and additional U.S Government funding
section_name: Internal and additional U.S Government funding
paragraph_text: Internal and additional U.S Government funding
  
  By July 2014, Jeff Bezos had invested over $500 million into the company. and the vast majority of further funding into 2016 was to support technology development and operations where a majority of funding came from Jeff Bezos ' private investment fund. In April 2017, an annual amount was published showing that Jeff Bezos was selling approximately $1 billion in Amazon stock per year to invest in the company. Jeff Bezos has been criticized for spending excessive amounts of his fortune on spaceflight.
  
  The company received $181 million from the United States Air Force for launch vehicle development in 2019. The company was also eligible to benefit from further grants totaling $500M as part of the U.S. Space Force Launch Services Agreement competition. On November 18, 2022, the U.S. Space Systems Command announced that an agreement with the company that "paves the way" for the company's New Glenn rocket to compete for national security launch contracts once it completes its required flight certifications for Top Secret military payloads.
  
  In an interview with Bob Smith by the financial Times in 2023, Smith said that the company had "hundreds of millions in revenue as well as billions of dollars in orders".
  
  The company is part of the DARPA Lunar Programs, specifically Luna10, an architecture study for lunar surface operations.