During the IPO roadshow, Musk told investors about future plans to launch a data center in space and build a colony on Mars. Analysts at its lead underwriter Goldman predict a 100-fold increase in its AI revenue to $322 billion by 2030.
While describing Starlink expansion as another key growth pillar in its IPO prospectus, SpaceX has never publicly confirmed that it plans to launch retail mobile service.
There has been months of speculation over SpaceX’s future mobile plans after it paid rival EchoStar $17 billion for wireless spectrum licenses to power its Starlink satellite network last September. Many analysts saw the deal as laying the groundwork for an eventual retail offering.
In its bond offering prospectus, seen by the FT, SpaceX said that although it expects the Starlink mobile service to currently be “most impactful for customers in remote areas covered by terrestrial mobile networks”, its long-term ambitions appear broader.
As its performance improves and the satellite constellation grows, the prospectus shows the company will “compete to become the preferred connectivity experience for our customers, no matter where they are located, whether in rural, suburban or urban areas.”
The launch of the consumer Starlink mobile retail service will also complement the company’s existing broadband internet options, which served 10.3 million customers worldwide as of March.
However, the plan has been met with consternation by analysts, who have warned that the idea may simply be a gamble to get better deals from Starlink’s telecom partners and warned of the billions of dollars in construction costs and radio wave spectrum required to get the mobile network up and running.
New Street Research estimates that the three US mobile network operators together have about 1,020 MHz of spectrum, while SpaceX has just 65 MHz.
David Barden, partner at New Street Research, said that “it will be incredibly difficult to build a wireless network in saturated markets around the world.”
“[But] As a starting point for negotiating the best possible revenue-sharing deal with mobile network operator partners? It means a lot,” he added.
Additional reporting by Ryan McMorrow in San Francisco
© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. May not be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.
<a href