From Ambani to Delta: why Elon Musk has picked fights over Starlink

Earlier this month, Elon Musk kicked up a storm, claiming that SpaceX's Starlink satellite service was "being blocked by certain oligarchs" in India and asking whether Mukesh Ambani was the country's "real boss". The government dismissed it as "baseless and misconceived", while Reliance Industries responded by saying that the company “never feared competition” and welcomed competition in satellite communications.

To be sure, India is not Musk's only target. He had earlier targeted Delta’s chief executive for choosing Amazon over Starlink, Ryanair's chief for rejecting Starlink, and South Africa for denying him a licence. Starlink's numbers explain the aggressive push—it is SpaceX's main source of profit, and its growth depends on cheaper markets and corporate customers.

Locked out

India is one of the few large markets where Starlink is still not commercially available. It received its licence in June 2025 and space regulator IN-SPACe's approval in July 2025, and says it has built 20 gateways in India. However, Bloomberg reported in June that the home ministry had withheld final clearance over concerns about relying on a US-controlled network in a crisis.

The prize is large, and closely held. India has 1.10 billion broadband subscribers. Reliance Jio and Airtel together serve about 910 million of them, more than 80%. This is the market structure Musk has criticized. This comes as Jio Platforms is about to launch India's largest initial public offering (IPO), with a targeted valuation of $106 billion.

Satellites could reach the gaps in India's communications network. Roughly 10,000–13,000 of India’s villages had no mobile coverage as of late 2025, but this only accounts for 1.5-2% of the total 644,131 villages. Internet access, however, remains limited, with only 48.3 internet subscribers per 100 people as of 2025-26.

Aviation rivalry

Musk tends to publicly attack anyone who stands between Starlink and a big customer base. Airlines are the clearest example. More than 40 carriers have signed up for Starlink, including United and American. Starlink’s pitch to airlines is speed. Data from Ookla Speedtest Intelligence shows Starlink’s in-flight WiFi is nearly four times as fast as the next-best provider.

However, Delta chose Amazon Leo for 500 planes from 2028, citing greater bandwidth at a lower price. Musk said its chief executive, Ed Bastian, “will lose his job”. When Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary called Starlink too expensive, Musk threatened to buy the airline.

The stakes explain the noise. SpaceX describes aviation as one of its largest remaining markets. It has less than 10% of the global commercial fleet, per industry estimates.
When an airline like Delta picks Amazon instead, or countries like South Africa, India and China remain inaccessible, it limits Starlink’s potential to grow.

Cash engine

Starlink pays for SpaceX's costliest ambitions.

In 2025, its connectivity segment generated revenues of $11.39 billion, making up 61% of SpaceX’s revenues. In the April-June quarter, the segment stood out with an operating profit of $1.66 billion on revenue of $4.29 billion, a margin of about 39%. The rest of the company lost money. The rocket business lost $542 million as it poured money into Starship, and the AI business, which includes xAI and X, lost $1.26 billion. AI capital spending alone was $15.8 billion in the quarter, more than 11 times Starlink's. SpaceX lost $4.9 billion in 2025 as capital spending nearly doubled to $20.7 billion.

That makes Starlink's growth central to SpaceX's valuation. The company raised $75 billion in June in the largest IPO ever, at a value of more than $2 trillion (post-listing), and told investors Starlink alone was a $1.6 trillion opportunity. Its shares have been volatile since. In July, they fell about 25% in a month, below the $135 IPO price. They have since recovered, making Musk a trillionaire again this month. Before the IPO, Musk owned about half of SpaceX and controlled more than 85% of shareholder votes, so Starlink's fortunes are closely tied to his own.

Price test

A large part of Starlink's growth now comes from more cost-conscious customers, which is why India matters. Its subscribers doubled to 12 million in the year to June, but average revenue per user fell from $85 a month to $66. SpaceX attributes that to "international expansion and the addition of lower-priced service plans". India could push that number further down.

Mobile data here costs about ₹8 per gigabyte, among the cheapest in the world. JioFiber charges ₹699 a month for 100 Mbps, while the Starlink app advertises $55 for the same speed in the US, about ₹5,225 at ₹95 to the dollar. Musk says that "if Starlink is too expensive in India, no one will buy it, so SpaceX will need to make pricing affordable". An INDmoney analysis finds that Starlink’s plan will need to offer about a 42-90% discount to match India pricing under different plans.

While the discounts would lower the earnings, India is one of the few markets large enough to absorb the capacity Starlink is about to add to its infrastructure.

Closing window

Starlink plans to add capacity on a scale that needs new customers. Out of 10,068, its 9,600 broadband satellites deliver about 800 terabits per second. Musk says the next-generation V3 satellites are about 10 times as capable, and SpaceX plans to launch about 10 times as many, raising bandwidth roughly a hundredfold. He expects Starlink to carry "a majority of the world's internet, at least in countries where we're allowed to operate" within 10 years. That bet only works if more countries allow it in.

Rivals are moving to keep it out, or to compete. Amazon Leo has about 400 satellites, has bought Globalstar for about $10.8 billion, and will power Apple's iPhone satellite features. The EU plans to reserve a third of its 2 GHz satellite band for European firms and a third for its own IRIS² network from 2029. In India, Jio says it is building its own "end-to-end indigenous" satellite stack. Each market that opens to rivals first is harder for Starlink to win later, which is why Musk is pushing now.

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