SpaceX could spin off Starlink as public company by 2025: Report

SAN FRANCISCO: Tech billionaire Elon Musk could spin Starlink off from SpaceX and carry out an initial public offering by 2025, media reports said.

As per tech analyst firm CCS Insight, as Starlink’s “revenue becomes more predictable and it gains more and more users, the company is spun off to raise capital to expand its constellation of satellites” to meet the growing demand for its services, a media report said.

“We think it makes perfect sense,” Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, was quoted as saying. “Starlink is going to need to invest heavily,” he added.

Wood said an initial public offering (IPO) will help drive investment into SpaceX, push international expansion, and “make Starlink the go-to player for satellite broadband”.

SpaceX executives have spoken about an IPO over the last couple of years. In 2021, Musk said SpaceX would take Starlink public when revenue becomes more predictable.

Earlier this year, Musk told employees an IPO of Starlink was unlikely until 2025 or later, a report said, citing the billionaire’s comments from an all-hands meeting of SpaceX employees. Musk previously targeted an offering as soon as this year, as per an email to SpaceX employees obtained by the media. The email, sent by Musk in May 2019, said “it will probably make sense to take Starlink public in about three years or so”.