SpaceX plans Starlink IPO
February 11, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk, in one of his regular Tweets, stated that an Initial Public Offering for the Starlink broadband-by-satellite system was on the cards “once we can predict cash flow reasonably well”.
His rationale was that building 120 satellites a month, plus their launches, plus their ground segment and operational costs represented a “deep chasm of negative cash-flow” over the next couple of years before financial viability could be achieved.
“Starlink is a staggeringly difficult technical & economic endeavour. However, if we don’t fail, the cost to end users will improve every year,” he added.
His comments echo those of his CEO Gwynne Shotwell last year who said that Starlink was the type of business that we can go ahead and take public.