The story around AST SpaceMobile (ASTS -17.13%) keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

In an article published Wednesday, I suggested that after its dramatic spike in share price in recent months, the satellite communications start-up should logically now sell a lot of stock and raise a lot of cash.

Just hours later, AST denied that it had any such intention, saying that it has all the cash it needs to cover “near-term operational initiatives,” and has “no plans to raise capital in an underwritten public equity offering through at least the end of 2024.”

And then came Thursday, when AST SpaceMobile filed a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prospectus describing its plans to sell $400 million worth of stock.

As of 1:54 p.m. ET, AST stock was down by 16.8%.

AST wants $400 million

Adding to the confusion, there’s no sign of AST SpaceMobile’s 8-K filing or prospectus on the SEC’s website yet. If you want to know what’s happening, you have to go to AST’s own investor relations page.

And what will you find there? AST has signed an Equity Distribution Agreement with eight big investment banks “to sell shares of the Company’s Class A common stock” … “having an aggregate offering price of up to $400.0 million”.

Admittedly, AST says it’s “not obligated to sell any of the Shares” and “may at any time suspend” sale — so the stock sale may not actually happen. But caveats notwithstanding, it sure sounds to me like AST is planning to sell stock — seemingly contradicting its statement Wednesday.

Explaining the inexplicable

The reason why AST might want to sell a lot of shares and raise another $400 million in new cash is clearer than the situation surrounding it. AST is in the process of building and launching a satellite constellation that will cost roughly $3 billion. At present, it only has $440 million.

Whatever it says about its intentions, the math here is pretty simple: If AST wants more cash, it needs to sell more stock — and dilute its current shareholders in the process.