The upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket deploys a stack of Starlink “V2 Mini” satellites into orbit.
SpaceX
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday that the company’s Starlink satellite internet business “achieved balanced cash flow.”
“Excellent work from a great team,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.
Musk did not specify whether that milestone was reached operationally or during a specific period of time.
Earlier this year, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said Starlink “had a positive cash flow quarter” in 2022 and the overall SpaceX company reportedly turned a profit in the first quarter of 2023.
SpaceX’s valuation has soared to about $150 billion, and Starlink is seen as a key economic driver for the company’s goals. Two years ago, Musk emphasized that making Starlink “financially viable” required crossing “a deep chasm of negative cash flow.”
Musk has discussed the possibility of spinning off Starlink to take it public through an initial public offering once the business was “on smooth sailing.” But the timing of Starlink’s IPO remains uncertain. Last year, Musk told employees that the company was not likely to go public until 2025 or later.
“Being public is definitely an invitation to pain,” Musk told SpaceX employees in 2022. “And the stock price is just distracting.”
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Starlink is the global communications network that Musk’s company has been building, with more than 5,000 satellites launched and counting.
It began offering Starlink service about three years ago, initially aimed at the consumer market. More recently, SpaceX said Starlink has more than two million subscribers, has expanded into other markets (including national security, enterprise, mobility, maritime and aviation) and has disrupted the existing satellite communications sector.
Last month, SpaceX announced the opening of a new satellite dish manufacturing facility in Bastrop, Texas, near Austin.
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