SANTA FE, N.M. — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk again appeared to rule out any near-term plans for spinning out his company’s Starlink broadband satellite business and taking it public.
Musk, speaking in a Dec. 21 audio session on X, the social media site formerly generally known as Twitter and likewise owned by Musk, argued that it didn’t make sense to take Starlink public and that he had no difficulties raising money for it privately.
Musk has said for several years that he had no immediate plans for spinning off Starlink and conducting an initial public offering (IPO) of shares to boost money. That included a comment in a 2020 talk where he said he was “enthusiastic about that zero” when asked a couple of Starlink IPO.
Nevertheless, he was more circumspect a couple of Starlink IPO in a web based interview in June. “It could not be legal for me to invest a couple of Starlink IPO,” said Musk, who has sparred with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prior to now in his role as chief executive of automaker Tesla. “I feel it’s against regulations to speak with any sorts of specifics a couple of future public offering.”
That interview got here after a report that a Starlink spinoff and IPO could happen by the tip of the 12 months. His comments added to speculation that a Starlink IPO could occur sooner relatively than later.
Nevertheless, in essentially the most recent discussion on X with investor Cathie Wood, Musk suggested there have been no plans to take SpaceX itself, or the Starlink business unit, public for the foreseeable future. “I don’t think it’s value going public until you might have a particularly stable and predictable revenue stream,” he said. “In case your money flows are extremely stable and predictable, at that time going public is less of a problem.”
SpaceX remains to be constructing out the Starlink constellation, with greater than 5,200 satellites in orbit. The corporate recently reported having greater than 2.3 million Starlink users, even though it was not clear if all were subscribers, and is now available in 70 countries. Musk wrote on X Nov. 2 that Starlink had “achieved breakeven money flow” but didn’t provide additional financial details.
Musk said he expected to haven’t any problems continuing to boost money for his ventures, including SpaceX, on private markets. “I can equity or debt fund absolutely anything at this point,” he claimed, based on his past performance for investors. “It’s principally very easy for me to boost almost any amount of capital, frankly.”
He contrasted privately held SpaceX with publicly traded Tesla in how the businesses do long-term planning. “At SpaceX we never think in regards to the quarter. We never give it some thought,” he said. “We don’t think in regards to the stock price. There’s immense pressure on a public company to not have a foul quarter. This may end up in a less efficient operation where you’re going to great lengths at the tip of the quarter to not disappoint people. That’s just the way it goes.”
A key factor motivating SpaceX’s development of Starlink is a desire to generate large amounts of money that may go towards the corporate’s, and Musk’s, long-term vision of human settlement of Mars. An icon utilized by Starlink on social media, in addition to on its consumer equipment, shows a Hohmann transfer orbit between the Earth and Mars.
“I feel Starlink is enough” for those plans, he said, when asked if SpaceX also needed additional markets, like proposals for using its Starship vehicle for high-speed point-to-point travel, to generate sufficient revenue. “Starlink is the means by which life becomes multiplanetary.”