Even if each one of them was paying the $1 annual fee, that's still less than a billion dollars in revenue.
Also, often valuations are based on the number of employees. SpaceX has 3,000 plus billions of dollars in capital equipment. Whatsapp had 55 I believe and basically zero dollars in capital equipment.
I think that there is more to this deal than "Google gets 10% for $1 billion". There is no way SpaceX is only worth $10 billion.
You've probably put your finger on exactly why Whatsapp is 2x SpaceX - 55 employees and zero capital equipment. Grow it by 10 and it all goes straight to the bottom line.
Valuations of small startups where the vast majority of staff have a high value to a buyer and can be locked into continued employed relatively cheaply are often valued based on the number of employees. How many of those 3,000 SpaceX staff would be of interest to the handful of companies that might have an interest in buying the company?
Further, that's of little relevance to a minority investor like Google, as they can't turn around and say "let's sell to Lockheed now", and staff moves.
In terms of capital equipment, you have to consider how quickly that equipment depreciates and who might be interested in it. Is there even a market for X billion in whatever equipment SpaceX owns? The purchase price is irrelevant.
Even if each one of them was paying the $1 annual fee, that's still less than a billion dollars in revenue.
Also, often valuations are based on the number of employees. SpaceX has 3,000 plus billions of dollars in capital equipment. Whatsapp had 55 I believe and basically zero dollars in capital equipment.
I think that there is more to this deal than "Google gets 10% for $1 billion". There is no way SpaceX is only worth $10 billion.