Musk: Confusion over IPO for Starlink
March 10, 2020
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk, speaking at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington DC, said plainly that he was thinking “zero” about an IPO for his 12,000 mega-satellite Starlink satellite project, and that “We need to make the thing work”.
Musk, candidly, seemed a little tired on stage and the event started much later than originally scheduled.
If this means there is to be no IPO for his Starlink broadband concept then all he has done is confuse the market. If his comment means that he is simply not thinking about it at the moment, then more confusion.
His comment is not helped by remarks made by Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s COO and effectively SpaceX’s actual CEO. At an investor conference earlier in February she told analysts: “Right now, we are a private company, but Starlink is the right kind of business that we can go ahead and take public. That particular piece is an element of the business that we are likely to spin out and go public.”
The next batch of 60 Starlink craft is due for launch this coming weekend.