SpaceX’s vertical strength and launch capability are the moat around its dominant position in the space economy and the reason that the company got its massive low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation in orbit while many of its would-be rivals remained on the proverbial tarmac.
Yet, it’s the Starlink broadband service brand that keeps the lights on. Moreover, assuming SpaceX’s much-hyped initial public offering (IPO) becomes a market reality later this year, the growth story at Starlink could prove an important palliative for investors once its balance sheet receives its first true public scrutiny.
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Steady satellite broadband revenue is requisite to fund headier promises
For as long as SpaceX remains a private company, grains of salt apply to the company’s claimed key performance indicators – and that’s before one considers founder and CEO Elon Musk’s well-documented predilection for hyperbole. Yet, even with that caveat, the growth trajectory for the Starlink broadband service is noteworthy.
The service, which is now available in over 150 countries nationwide, saw subscribership double in 2025, growing from approximately 4.5 million subscribers in December 2024 to over nine million by the end of 2025. By February 2026, SpaceX claimed to have passed the ten million-subscriber threshold.
While much of that growth was driven by the Starlink service entering 35 new country markets in 2025, SpaceX claimed to have more than two million Starlink home broadband subscribers in the US in July 2025. Estimates now putting that number over 2.5 million should be taken seriously.
SpaceX is going to need every bit of that broadband revenue. Both the rocket shop and the frontier AI outfit remain experimental, money-losing interests.
The overhauled BEAD opportunity could give satellite significant juice in the US
Thanks to the Trump administration putting its finger on the scale for satellite and overhauling the rules of the long-gestating Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, state broadband offices have tapped satellite broadband providers to serve over 22% of eligible locations to date.
At just north of 475,000 total so far, Starlink’s haul of awarded BEAD locations surpasses everybody but Amazon Leo. However, like all things SpaceX, this too has resulted in drama: A leaked Starlink rider to US states demanding special consideration subsequently earned quiet pushback from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), i.e., the very same federal agency that had stacked the BEAD deck in Starlink’s favour.
Some of the suggestions in SpaceX’s rider should be expected; after all, the satellite was shoehorned after the fact into a bureaucratic process written from its foundations with fibre in mind. All its suggestions are self-serving, however, and the effort portrayed a company looking to leverage its favoured status on the federal level to browbeat state broadband offices.
The NTIA doesn’t seem keen to direct states to entertain those demands – at least not yet. The agency’s stance could soften if Musk decides to play hardball publicly.
All those SpaceX tie-up and IPO headlines add up to a corporate overhaul
SpaceX swallowed xAI in the final days of January 2026 in an M&A action valuing the combined entity at $1.25trn – i.e., $250bn for xAI and $1trn for SpaceX. That $250bn for xAI marked a steep climb for its $113bn valuation in March 2025, when Musk first combined social media platform X with xAI.
Regardless of any technical virtues from marrying the rocket and AI operations, the fly in the ointment is Grok. xAI’s chatbot has become a flashpoint manifestation of big tech development malfeasance for anybody concerned over the irresponsible deployment of AI.
Since December 2025, a deepfake sexual content scandal has dogged xAI and its chatbot. Making matters worse: The company has often seemed as recalcitrant as its founder in admitting its laissez-faire approach to AI development could be problematic, despite litigation and regulatory blowback in countries across the globe.
That’s all baggage the Starlink brand doesn’t need, and it will sour some investors on SpaceX itself as a long-term, steady, and lucrative infrastructure play. Yet, the tie-up still hasn’t muted the furore around SpaceX’s now imminent IPO.
Starlink will be bigger than a ‘niche’ play in home broadband, despite inescapable limitations
Physics cannot be broken. Thus, Starlink’s performance will never match that of fibre service, particularly when it comes to latency. However, its unique satellite-based infrastructure allows it to reach areas where traditional providers cannot offer service, making it a strong option for customers who don’t have robust terrestrial access.
The raw speeds possible with Starlink’s service will improve as SpaceX steadily fires up new V2 mini satellites aboard the Falcon 9 and – eventually – full V2s and V3s aboard Starship. Starlink will apply pressure on all terrestrial-based fixed access technologies – and not just in further-flung locales, although the impact will still be most acute among regional and rural players.
